Yes! in the sea of life enisled,
With echoing straits between us thrown,
Dotting the shoreless watery wild,
We mortal millions live alone
-Mathew Arnold (To Marguerite: Continued)
This quote always resonated with me. I used to wonder, there are so many people around me but they don’t know me and I don’t know them. I don’t know where they live, what their name is, what they like and don’t like. Some of them might have talked to me in another life or would have been my friend,some might have made me laugh and others might have touched my heart. I would have had a lot in common with many of them that we could talk for hours together.
But I don’t know any of them. And I am alone in the knowledge of me and the truth of my life. Why can’t we have more people in our lives? Why can we have that one person with whom we share lunch and chit chat. Why can’t we have that person with whom we share our innermost secrets. The other one whom we have meaningless conversations with. The one with silly jokes that makes us laugh. Another one who gives us advice. Does it have to be one person who does all this for us? One and only? ( I don’t mean husband, wife or a partner, just people)
There are so many different aspects of our life that it cannot be filled by 2, 3 or 4 people. We are so complex that even we don’t understand us fully. So to fulfill each of our different dimensions we need different people who are ours so to speak. Who are involved in our lives or are part of it.
That why I think maybe people were happier in larger families because some of that requirement is filled with more number of people around. However we can still have that we just need to reach out pick our people and keep them. We have to be theirs too otherwise its just too selfish of us and will not last. I hope that every one of you out there find people to satisfy the complex emotional needs of the complex ‘you’.
Salmagundi 