The Human Acceptance Problem
Wow. I didn't know Bedazzled could motivate me so much. Have you watched that movie? Well, it's about this guy who sells his soul to the devil for 7 wishes. And in the end, he realised that no matter what he did, he could never get what he wanted through magic, or by the click of some fingers. Everything's got to be earned by hard work. And life is seldom a hppy ending.
I'm sometimes like that. I wish I was smarter, I was more handsome, richer, less hot-tempered, more sociable, happier. I also wish someone could grant all those wishes. Don't we all hope sometimes, just sometimes, our lives take a turn and we become more fufilled? Then we don't have to keep lamenting about things we don't have, and stay completely happy. No more running after things. Actually all that we want, are just reflections on the acceptance we need from others. We need to stayy conformed! We need to be somebody to be popular! Yea, that's the whole issue about us homo sapien sapiens.
How many of you guys gave up some time just to look more handsome or prettier? Or be accepted into a new group of friends? Well, if you do, then you are just like me. Yay. Poor old us.
It's as if the world runs on people giving each other approval and acceptance!
More famous, richer, poorer, uglier, shorter, taller, nerdier, dumber, prettier, wierder, funnier, what does all these matter? They are all - theoretically - expectations we humans impose on one another. Even the words are man made! I don't think anyone of us would reach to a point in life that we crave for no more desires, become saintly, and start to feel nothing. Even Buddhist monks desire - they desire to reach to a state where they would no longer desire. We don't completely get fufilled. Ever.
The movie was trying to prove out a point: What we have now, is more important than what we want. What we have now, is part of us! I'm part of me, and you're part of you. The things that we wish to change in our lives - like our fashion sense, my big nose, your small eyes, her smart brains - are things that make us different from the start. Everyone can start wearing fashionable clothes. Then where's the fun in that? Can you imagine walking out of your house and the sea of people you meet are wearing the exact same things you're wearing? Or they have the exact same perfect face you have? Then won't we just be a horde of clones?
I really thought God was trying to tell me something through the movie. He wanted me to know I am me! And people are people! We all can never transform ourselves to become someone else without feeling miserably out of place. We are never going to reach the perfect outcome we all hope for.
It's all about compromise.
To end this off, here's something someone said to that guy in that movie, when he broke free from his contract:
"Actually, the conflicts that lie between God and satan? The end result doesn't depend on them. "Heaven" and "Hell" is right here on earth. Inside you. You pick which side to be on. Good or evil, it's your decision."
It's our decision!