10/05/2020
Day 47
In a change from the daily routine of reading and watching news, I lived the day without this external stimulus of information about the world. In the backdrop of this information, the self appears different too. This lack of engagement with the world reflects in the nature of today’s writing as well as its length. We are a conversation hungry, stimulus depended species.
We believe our better selves are constantly forming. Along linear time we imagine that we are getting better as we age. Our meanings of better are a function of our immediate normative universe. This is in turn defined by faith, values and cultural practices we are born and socialised into. Perhaps that’s one reason why early childhood has become so deterministic of the outcomes in later life. Then there is a material part of this – what we have access to, what we live without etc. But on an individual plane, what are the times and conditions that make us better? How do we know at any given moment, that we are better versions of ourselves in that moment, than before? Invariably, receivers of our better selves are never those who helped us become better. Time and situations tend to move on from the point where this journey into being better began.. I am thinking of this question today. Are these days leading to a better self? If yes, in what ways and what does that better self look like? Clearly, the current days afford us enough time to reflect upon things that are happening in personal life and outside it.Is there a changed self emerging? One which now sees more clearly than before, what is truly important.
Contested Realities 