All humans are afraid of mediocrity. None wants to be invisible to others. It is only natural to feel that way. But how many of us escape mediocrity really?
Firstly, we never get to know how people perceive us and how many of those who we encounter throughout life remember us in the end. Someone once said that if only we could get the chance to see ourselves through the eyes of the others, we would instantly vanish from the surface of the earth. Even if it sounds too radical and harsh, it is the truth. We can take as an example the embarrassment we feel sometimes as a result of something which shouldn't have been said or done and sounded or looked wrong. It is because for a moment we get to see ourselves from the others' perspective. Nothing's more unbearable than the awareness of your own mistakes.
Secondly, there are so many of us in the world. And even if we all try to regard ourselves as unique and different from others, in the end one can find very little genuine distinctness out there. We fight our own battles, but deep down they are all the same battles. Love, suffering, happiness, loneliness, all follow the same pattern and all pertain to the humanness, which has been the same since ever.
And then again, what is mediocrity? Because it seems to be a condition of life, the sooner we realize and conform to it, the better for our peace of mind. Have you noticed how peaceful we become when we decide there's nothing we need more, that we have reached the point of due contentment? That we are no longer obliged to keep on proceeding with great efforts a distant target which is supposed to be our destination (even though we are not exactly sure what this destination is exactly)?
Yes, this eternal toil towards a not quite clear goal is no more than the getaway from mediocrity. But can we really run away from it?
Firstly, we never get to know how people perceive us and how many of those who we encounter throughout life remember us in the end. Someone once said that if only we could get the chance to see ourselves through the eyes of the others, we would instantly vanish from the surface of the earth. Even if it sounds too radical and harsh, it is the truth. We can take as an example the embarrassment we feel sometimes as a result of something which shouldn't have been said or done and sounded or looked wrong. It is because for a moment we get to see ourselves from the others' perspective. Nothing's more unbearable than the awareness of your own mistakes.
Secondly, there are so many of us in the world. And even if we all try to regard ourselves as unique and different from others, in the end one can find very little genuine distinctness out there. We fight our own battles, but deep down they are all the same battles. Love, suffering, happiness, loneliness, all follow the same pattern and all pertain to the humanness, which has been the same since ever.
And then again, what is mediocrity? Because it seems to be a condition of life, the sooner we realize and conform to it, the better for our peace of mind. Have you noticed how peaceful we become when we decide there's nothing we need more, that we have reached the point of due contentment? That we are no longer obliged to keep on proceeding with great efforts a distant target which is supposed to be our destination (even though we are not exactly sure what this destination is exactly)?
Yes, this eternal toil towards a not quite clear goal is no more than the getaway from mediocrity. But can we really run away from it?
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