Misplaced Promptness

Misplaced Promptness
Today we live in a fast-paced age. We give so much importance to promptness that it comes as a virtue to us to live with. Promptness is reflected in our every gesture, be it taking any action or giving any reaction. While we can ensure at least some kind of rationality when we initiate any action, we cannot possibly do the same when it comes to reacting but still we focus a great deal on reacting. Is it always necessary to go beyond the sensation?
In a hurry to react we often forget to enquire into facts and figures of the action in first place. We seldom allow ourselves some time to let it sink in. Without doing that we hardly get aware of our emotions. Emotions, if not understood properly, get manifested in the negative feelings. Such negative ramifications never solve any problem as they just throw us off the focus. We go so far in giving vent to our feelings that we lose the sight of the issue. It just becomes the rapid fire game of action and reaction. Ironically it is about reconciliation and convergence. We are so used to lashing out that we hardly realize that all we need to do is exercise some restraint and spend some time in silence to analyze our emotions and its relevance to the core issue. Sometimes silence supersedes promptness. Whenever we come across any friction we undermine facts and figures and convert it into some kind of clatter born from personality-centric aggression. In that clatter we just find ourselves and our bête noire. Just like we don’t enquire into facts and figures we don’t look for ideas. We seek domination in the dialogue.
On a macro level, as we keep exploring new things in life we keep tweaking the status quo. If we change the dynamics of the society new challenges are bound to emerge on the new horizon. Everything else revolves around the set-up. In that case it is so futile to divide the society on the issue of this set-up. The democracy teaches us to collaborate and bring out the most efficient set-up for the society as a whole. Yes, we cannot be averse to the idea of debate. That is the whole purpose behind having the opposition in the system but it has to be in the context of idea building. Any kind of opposition should only prod us towards getting more efficient, consistent and smarter in our solution seeking efforts. We should all be focused on the focal point and not on the differences arising from different voices. It could be crescendo or symphony. The moot point is who is listening rather than who is shouting?
Unfortunately we make ourselves so vulnerable to discord that we don’t allow any other possibility to reach us. Success of any dialogue depends on the exact opposite process. If we stop any discord from reaching us we become receptive only to new ideas, new solutions and new synergies. The ideology then is to either stay intact or get better. No other outcome can reach us then. It is rightly said that to be aware of our emotions and direct it towards health is a part of enlightened living. Let’s first be aware of our emotions both on micro and macro level. We have paced enough. Let’s pause for a while and reach peace and equilibrium!

DEEPALI S. BASUR
Co-founder & Chief Editor,
www.ethinksharp.com, an e-magazine dedicated to the 'YOUTH'.