I think many of us go through life living in fear. We fear rejection, so we don't try that new thing we've been wanting to. We fear betrayal, so we prefer to stay away from people and stay in our cocoon, safe from the outside world. We fear uncertainty, so we prefer to stay in an unsatisfying yet comfortable situation. We fear change, so we remain stuck in a rut.
I have a lot of conversations with friends regarding this. How everyone wants to get out and do that thing; but that thing doesn't come easy. So we give up. We give ourselves the platitude of 'at least we tried, perhaps it's not meant for us'. But did we try enough? Did we face our fears in the eye and took over them? Or, did we just give up when it became too tough to handle?
Are we less resilient than our parents' generation? Are we a big bunch of softies - who haven't seen 'real' problems in life, and therefore have the luxury to worry over these 'non-issues'? At least that's what a lot of people from the older generation say. Perhaps it doesn't even have to do with a generation. It is true that a lot of us - the privileged ones - haven't seen the real existential issues. We have never seen a crisis for food, or for living spaces. We have the material comforts that a large population around the world is unfortunately still aspiring for.
Yet, we live in fear. We are unhappy. We try and fail to answer the existential question of 'why are we living'? We try to find a 'purpose' in life. We quite often fail in that endeavour. We fail to accept that maybe, just maybe, there is no grand purpose to our life. We are there as a cosmic accident, and that's all.
And then, we feel lost. We don't know what is it that will make our life seem 'normal' again. We become fed -up of our own constant thoughts and refrains. We crave for that something/someone - which will make us feel a tad bit better.
Maybe it is a problem of plenty. There aren't two roads in the wood anymore - there are thousands, and each is as travelled as the other. We have the option of making our own road too. We see a lot of people confidently going down the road of their choice. They look excited, content, happy. And we stand there, frozen in panic, wondering and worrying, what if this road is not the one for me?