There are the things that I think on a daily basis: how to be a better person, what is the fundamental rule that I should abide by to get by life the right way, what kind of person should I be when interacting with people from different backgrounds? All those questions I think about, consulted self-help books on, everyday non-stop, almost seem like an psychological symptom. Only recently, do I finally accept that it's all because I'm young, confused, inexperienced, worried, and anxious. All of which goes under the category of normal twenty year olds.
I was having a satisfying intellectual conversation with an acquiesce of mine about arrogance and something called the socio-emotional selectivity theory. It was a great conversation that I do not experience in my daily life, sadly. It was a conversation that involved with most agreements, addition of information, and the consensus that young people are arrogant, old people are not.
The socio-emotional selectivity theory, if you don't know, is a theory that people's attitude and behavior towards life is more dependent on how many years of life the individual perceive remain on this planet. Experience in the past matter, education matter, but this years remain alive and well matter the most towards people's attitudes towards life.
If you are young and in your twenties, you think you will life on forever. The questions you think tend to be long-term. Things like the next career choice, the people you should befriend to benefit you in the long term, the amount of wealth you should accumulate to make you live comfortably, are all geared towards the future. Younger generations (the responsible ones) tend focus on preparation and delayed satisfaction, instead of immediate fulfillment.
If you are not young, or if you are young but somehow know that you only have five or six years to live, you might find those questions to quickly loose its meaning. What's the point of starting a career when you know that you only have five to six years to work on it? Is it even worth it to put that much time and energy into something that are uncertain? What's the point of befriending this arrogant wealthy jerk when the chance of him helping me is one in a thousand? In term, those people focus on what's important to their own satisfaction and fulfillment. Establishing connections with people who know you closer to the soul, is something all old people do. They know each other better, forming further bonds with familiar ones establishes a deeper level of understanding and comfort -- something new acquaintances do not give you. Doing the simple things like gardening, spending time at home gives you a sense of belonging and identity -- something that working 10 hours a day does not give you. At a point in time, people who think they only have a few years to live change their way of thinking, and somehow just knows what truly make them satisfied and fulfilled. It's not a new LV bag, it's not the newest tech gadgets, it's, apparently, the simplest thing that all young people are already doing but are unaware - the greenery of the grass, the change of seasons, then daily saluting with people, the general spirit of fulfillment and joy.
While I write, I can understand this fulfillment and joy abstractly, yet fail to grasp it concretely.
No comments:
Post a Comment