THE GREAT HUMAN RACE

The Great Human Race. The so called 21st century Human Race – who we claim to have become more evolved than our ancestors.

Have we really?

I feel yes, of course, from our stone age ancestors to Christopher Colombus to 19th century humans. We have made leaps in science, technology, better way of living and many other areas.

However, have we really improved as a human race or gone worse? Do we really live our life or are we just following each other in this blind rat race, trying to compete and win – be first (don’t know for what, but gotta be ahead of the game) or are we trained to work extremely hard to quest that thrench of hunger?

I started pondering these questions when life took a pause for me when my grandmother recently passed away this summer. It dawned on me that sadly you leave everything and everyone behind when you pass away – all that hard work, all those achievements are all gone within few minutes of your death. Then what is the purpose of life?

My grandmother suffered from Alzheimer and towards the end, she barely recognized one or two members from the family. She did remember her childhood days and old memories, but she did not remember her kids, grandkids and many more people. This got me thinking that what am I doing.

I claim that I have my life, my set routine where I am balancing going to work part time and handling the kids school and activities and on the weekends, having socials. Many of you may have achieved or are working towards achieving your goals in your career which is amazing. Then what? Has it ever dawned on you that in this rat race of being first or being the best, we get everything we dream of; however, what is the end result?

I do not want to sound pessimistic, but in today’s generation, there is more emphasis on striving to be the best, to outdo each other in the race and always competing for something or the other. I feel that this is being taught to kids from a very early age which is perfectly fine since kids have to learn to beat the competition they may face as adults.

However, we forgot to learn from our ancestors how to enjoy life in midst of this stress and competition. Our grandparents or their parents used to work hard to make a living, but at the same time they used to enjoy life by taking joy in the small things. So, where did we get lost?

“You’re only here for a short visit. Don’t hurry, don’t worry. And be sure to smell the flowers along the way.” —Walter Hagen

Consequently, with her death, it got me thinking about what exactly is life. I realized that as a parent, my life had become very monotonous with the same routine every week and may be a little bit of traveling for fun once in a while. I also realized that I can’t escape my responsibility as a parent and just walk away and go live my life by doing as I please.

Therefore, I decided to take each day by day and live in the present. That also means that if I have to prepare for the future like paying bills, I will have that ready, but I do not want to stress about it.

I decided to find joy in the routine by appreciating what I see around, what I do or trying to find something new to do in that day. For instance, one Sunday evening, there was not much going on since my husband was traveling, so I decided to take the kids for a hike.

Some of you might be like what is the big deal in this. So, while on our hike, I was showing my kids the different flowers, plants, the small ant holes, the view of the city – taking the hike slowly so they can learn to enjoy the small joys of life.

In this competitive world, it is very important to learn to be positive, appreciate the small and big things life presents to you otherwise, it is very easy to drown in this spiral of competition and become negative towards life.

Life is what you make of it, but if you can fill your life with the smell of happiness and positive memories, I am sure you will not regret of not living your life on your death bed since only memories will be standing next to you.