The widely popular poem, All the World is a Stage, is one of the few pieces of literature I love. William Shakespeare described life as a play and humans as mere actors fulfilling their respective roles as written by God.
Though this is a very interesting way of looking at life, I felt as if there could be different perspectives towards life. To me, before I started writing this entry, life was exactly what you make of it.
Recently, I read a book, All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. After reading the book, it made me wonder how different life translates to different people. One line from the book particularly stood out for me where the main character, Theodore Finch’s counsellor tells him that he is not alone and he replies, “Actually I am, which is part of the problem. We are all alone, trapped in these bodies and our minds, and whatever company, we have in this life is only fleeting and superficial.”
This has been stuck in my mind ever since then and as I got the chance to express my thoughts, I had no particular answer to the question, “What exactly is life?” I pondered a lot, coming to terms with the phrase “impending weightless doom” as the main character of the book says, “It’s a phrase I like and understand.”
Then I wondered if life is “impending weightless doom” which often gave a sort of adrenaline rush to you. If I think about it that way I certainly like the idea of something that gives you these feelings and rush all the time.
There are thoughts in my mind like “I will leave this all behind one day anyway so why not make life worth living?” But as I grew older, I understood enough that you cannot count on things staying around or standing still no matter how much you want them to. So, if my life is good and worth living, will I be able to let it go?
We are bound to leave this stage
As Shakespeare mentioned that we are bound to leave this stage, my thoughts revolved back to “whatever company we have in this life is only fleeting and superficial.”
If we take a look at our surroundings, the things we have now, and the people we have now will certainly leave. It is either you leave before them or they leave before you. You cannot stop them from going away neither can you stop yourself from going away. With all these, I concluded that you really cannot control the plot as the god wrote.
However, as I conversed with my sister, she stayed positive, unlike me. She believes we have the power to change or create our lives the way we want. God has given us this stage and a script to perform but to write that script is up to us. She says, “Life can be hard but it’s always beautiful.”
I was not satisfied enough with the answer, almost as if I wanted someone to agree with me that life is not always as we wish it would be. Again, I asked one of my friends at five in the morning, “What is life?”
She replied, “Life is horrible and throws me at junk whenever I think I am doing good.”
Her answer was solely based on the fact that she had to wake up at five in the cold mornings for her classes. So I asked her again later the day when she had an orientation program at her college and her answer was, “Life is fun. I am enjoying every bit of it.”
Live a proud life
This made me smile as for one person life can be hard but always beautiful whereas for others life depends on the situation they are in. I wondered about myself, has my perception changed?
After all, I asked and got to know about how the people in my life see “life” as I came to a realisation, “The miracle of living.” All these entries I wrote, were then worth it-–at least in my case.
At that moment I stopped seeing life as a serious circle of people leaving and going, and all the burdens in my heart and mind disappeared. The fear of death, of life, and love–everything of it disappeared. It was weightless. There are so many parts of this play called life, that maybe, existing and playing those parts isn’t so bad after all.
So in the end, to me, life is something that just never ends. There is nothing to fear about the next act of my play when I know who the writer is. There is no time limit, you can start whenever you want.
You can change your script or let it be as it is. You can make the best or the worst out of it. And I hope for me as well as for everyone with life, to make the best out of it, feel things they have never felt before, meet people with a different point of view, and live a “life” they are proud of.
And if they find that they are not proud of their life, I hope everyone dares to start over again, so that life becomes exactly what we make out of it, instead of it being an impending weightless doom waiting to cease.
