What's your fatal flaw?

In Shakespearean plays there is this concept of a 'fatal flaw'. The origin of this term comes from Aristotle and the Greek tragedies but it can be more conveniently explained through Shakespearean tragedies. The hero of a tragedy has a particular characteristic or peculiar behavioral pattern which brings about his downfall towards the end of the play. It is something so deeply embedded in his basic nature that he himself cannot change it and any attempt to do so results in the opposite consequences. So it could be any characteristic for example; Macbeth is over ambitious due to which he kills the king of Scotland which follows a series of other unneccesary murders and finally results in his own death. Hamlet is too idealistic and believes in seeing only the 'goodness' in any human plus he is also indecisive and does not know when to act so he keeps delaying the murder of his uncle which he should have done much earlier to avenge for his father's death. Othello is extremely jealous and caught by his own insecurities which is why he becomes vulnerable to Iago's manipulations and destroys his only true love Desdemona.

Based on the fact that 'Art imitates Life', I believe that we humans too just like the charcters of a Shakespearean play possess our own respective 'flaws' (if not fatal ones). That singlemost quality of ours acts as ah hindrance in major goals of our life and that is the state we refer to as being 'helpless'. We cannot change the way we are and therefore have to bear with the consequences arising out of this nature. So again, it could be anything- procrastination, greed, idealism, pessimism, submissiveness, anger, carelessness, not being able to speak when the time is right, extreme trust or the inability to trust. Mine would be indecisiveness or lack of focus. Unlike many people who know what they want or what they want to be right from childhood, I havent had a single thing or a single dream. The career choices have kept changing like a chameleon from time to time leaving me as the proverbial 'Jack of all trades..'

So the point is even if we cant change this 'flaw' to a great extent it is fun to sometimes atleast look in retrospect and find out what our respective flaw is. Then, whether to change it, adapt or live with it is totally upto us. If nothing you'll atleast know some more about yourself. So go ahead or write it down if you may- What's your 'fatal flaw'?

Unrequited Dreams

The thought occurred to me when someone told me that “Before I grow old, I want to learn 3 things- learn to swim, learn to dance and learn to operate the computers”. It may sound so silly and profane to the current generation- there are so many better things to dream of- make a world tour, go hitchhiking, get a tattoo, buy a sports car, etc. etc. But dreams are dreams. For someone who’s 47 years old and has spent an entire life in household duties even these three things could make a world of difference. It’s all about ‘contentment’ which is the sole purpose of any human birth.

The point I’m trying to arrive at is how many times do we set aside our dreams in order to help someone realize their dream? Forget sacrificing our dreams, its not even required, all that is needed is some time and motivation for them. They are not weak people, they are just like us, the only difference being that they didn’t have as many choices as we did or still do. So you just need to give them a nudge and they’ll fly on their own. They have wings but have only forgotten that they do.

There is a karmic connection evidently- do good and something good will happen to you but I am not getting at that. The idea is to create positivity around. I believe that even if we have one person to help one such dream, so much positive energy will be released in the universe. This can be done simply by asking our loved ones- family first and then friends, about their unfulfilled desires and then think of how you can help fulfill them and to what extent.

Sometimes people are deprived of such simple things which are a part of your own routine that it never occurs to you as to what are they missing. For e.g. a little boy from a grocery store nearby who comes to your building to deliver goods daily, stands and stares at the building boys his age who are playing merrily. For the boys, it’s vacation and therefore obvious that they would be playing but for that little boy, it may be a huge dream- to own those shiny glass marbles and be a part of the game. Even before that dream comes true his childhood is gone, unrequited, incomplete.
Imagine, if only one day out of all those mundane years he gets to play just like the other boys. How much will he cherish that memory? He may not remember the painful years he spent working as a child but he will distinctly remember that ‘one’ day when he really lived it up!