Reflections

Sometimes I feel strangely out of place. The walls are too straight, the floor is too smooth, the glass partitions are too shiny, and the computer too sleek, and constantly remind me of my own imperfections. I fit in better outside, amidst irregular rocks, unshapely trees, and an uneven earth. Feels more like myself.

Humans have vastly improved upon the things they create. Things have become near perfect, which is not really such a good thing. For perfect machines drive home the point of human imperfection. We stand in awe of machines we created, which are able to run flawlessly for hours on end, and stand in contrast to the worker, who makes mistakes every now and then, falls ill once in a while, has a family that takes his attention away sometimes, while the machine goes on and on and on.

We look at machines, and secretly wish to emulate them. We create what we call “companies”, which are really just large machines, with humans acting as parts, and their energy as fuel, to produce and sell more things.

Inside these companies, we fix roles, set up systems, and create mechanisms to monitor, exactly as an engineer would in a machine-create individual parts with fixed roles, systems fixing the interplay of the parts, and mechanisms monitoring any deviations.

But we forget that humans are not parts, they are wholes in themselves. Each individual is unique and complete, and is the reason and cause for the universe to exist. And most of all, we forget that the things and machines we look up to are products of our own minds.

Ralph Waldo Emerson had once said, “Things are in the saddle, and riding mankind”. Human beings have relegated themselves to second place in this world, and have given the first place to products of their own minds. It is a place we must win back, by realizing that the mind is a tool that we have, but we are far greater than it. As individuals, each one of us must go back to the original question: Who am I?

The answer to that will put the mind, and its products, back into the place where they belong, and leave the world once again, to be a place for humans to live in, love, and enjoy.