The Cruelty of Life
Dissecting an Unrelenting Life
Birth of a child is a snub to the believers of universal free will. It signifies its entry into a world it never chose to enter. The fortuitousness of life is reiterated as the child reaches the age of adolescence where it finds itself placed in a society that functions with tailored beliefs and customs to bring about uniformity in thinking. The loss of individuality can be blamed on the inflexible influence of family and society. The least a parent can do is save its child from its own influence. In most societies, dissent is condemned and divergent thoughts are ignored. The condescending and supercilious society spares no one.
“It's not just that life is cruel, but that in the very process of our birth we submit to life's cruelty.” — Shashi Deshpande
Life is filled with paradoxes. The distressed are looking for peace while the bored are looking for action. One is most vulnerable when one is happy. Eventually, life finds a way to strip off everything that mattered to the happy one. The nefarious circle of life begets cautious optimists and hopeful pessimists. By no means is life equally cruel or kind to everyone. A child faces different set of challenges when it is born with a disability or born in an impoverished country. Life hurts the poorest with scarcity and the rich with abundance. The poor make peace with the monotony and hardships of life, their aspirations are limited by their modesty and ignorance. They find meaning to live in their own survival. How cruel can life be when one is looking for more rather than enough? The one with abundance is at risk of losing it all, life can snatch away everything that made living worth it. Life is a thief.
When life is cruel, the thought of death is liberating. In contrast to serendipitous birth, death is a choice. If life is meaningless, death is as meaningless.
Dysfunctional families, broken relationships, and death of loved ones can lead to inexplicable pain. Relationships break at the drop of a hat while friends are lost due to petty quarrels, each death is a reminder of the transient nature of life. A perfect life is a myth, life is filled with pain.
“All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” — Leo Tolstoy