Degrees of Comparison

“Marriage is like going to a restaurant. We place orders for food after going through the menu in great detail, yet when we see the food that is delivered to our neighbouring table, we regret our order.”

Thus ran a joke.

It may be a joke all right, but it does touch upon some truth. All of us, at some time or the other, fall prey to this attitude and it need not necessarily be about marriage or food.

We may choose our dresses and the accessories to match with great elaborateness, yet we may still feel everyone else is much better dressed than we are. There are people who go through various tribulations to set up their own business or buy a house or car, yet, when confronted with someone else’s ‘better’ things, they feel small.

I know a guy who, in spite of the passage of a great many years, holds a grudge against his father, all because his father did not celebrate his birthdays as lavishly as his uncles celebrated their children’s birthdays.

Yes, comparison seems to be the order of the day. It is OK if one were to compare with the sole intention of bettering oneself, without losing one’s self esteem. Unfortunately, what happens is quite contrary, which in turn, brings about a situation that reeks of instability, distrust, trauma, casualness, insincerity, and ingratitude.

Like the guy who despises his father. He has a job anyone would envy about, the result of the education his father strove to give him and the values his father disciplined him to. But the guy seems to have overlooked all this.

When one loves and accepts what life has offered, however harsh it may be, takes pride in one’s strengths, feels grateful for small mercies, focuses on the positive, and rises above the physical and the mundane to discover inner beauty, such a one would never stoop down to compare.

And such a one would never feel the pangs of hunger because this self-contained soul would eat with relish what is served on one’s plate.

(Published in The Gulf Today / Short Take, dt Jan 31, 2015)

http://gulftoday.ae/portal/19e4c1fe-1465-4e63-87cd-8519ae68ea5e.aspx

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