Look up, Look down

There is the perpetual battle between status and humility in our lives. To succeed in our careers, we need to be brutal at times. We are supposed to command respect and people should look up to us as a successful person. To be humble in a career today is akin to being a pushover. Times are moving fast and people cannot afford to stop and smell the roses for fear of being left behind in the rat race.

Then contrarian view is the purpose of why we are here in the first place. I mean, sure, we’ve done this, done that, made money, accumulated wealth, saved for the succeeding generations, age and finally die. The death part would have come anyway without even trying hard. So all that was done in between birth and death would be irrelevant if the purpose of existence has not been fulfilled.

People always say walk with your head held high. Supposedly, people who look up and walk are high on self esteem. They are independent, can take decisions and unafraid to face the world. They are proud of themselves and in short, what we term successful. This is the psychologists’ point of view after detailed analysis had been done on thousands of people studying their behavior.

People who walk looking down are deemed not confident. They are afraid to look anyone in the eye because they may have a complex about themselves. They are low on self esteem and just want to get to their destination without being noticed. Again, this was arrived at after a detailed study. Let’s agree that a trend analysis using theorems does bring out patterns and helps us profile people.

But what about the concern for our fellow creatures? How many insects and other creatures have we killed or harmed by walking over them because we refuse to look down? It could be unintentional but it happened anyway. Benevolence in life extends to all of God’s creations. It is always about doing the right thing, even if it seems wrong at the time. It is also about looking at Mother Earth as she supports every footstep you take. She holds you up and helps you along.

All habits we create are out of practice or upbringing. We can practice being proud and ultimately it becomes us. We can practice being humble to a point where it becomes us again. If life is only about succeeding in the material world, it is easy because we are all doing it to a level by striving for it.

But practicing humility is harder. Because you have to be aware of everything you do and ensure that you do not hurt anyone or anything. It also means understanding the egoistic side of you. It is hard because it needs patience during anger, during upheavals. It needs awareness of one’s emotions all the time. We quietly brush the virtue of humility to the side because it is easy or because we do not have to face ourselves.

So do you look up or look down when you walk? And is it for the right reason? Confusion in perpetuity.