If The World Ended Tomorrow

Yesterday, I was asked a rather simple, but difficult to answer, question by a friend of mine. The question simply went, what would you do if you found out that the world would end tomorrow? This was after I had asked her the same question and she gave me her own interesting version of what she would have done if indeed the world were coming to and end. But, it was a completely different ball game when the tables were turned. Now I had the dubious honor of explaining what I would do if I faced a similar prospect. And quite honestly, I didn't know how to answer the question. I haven't previously given serious thought about it. So, with the obligation of answering the question, I simply blurted out my usual lines. I remember saying to her how I would go around and telling everybody how exactly I felt about them, how I would do all the things I wanted, eat all the lamb chops and then spending the night playing rock music to a huge live audience. Of course, I wanted to add one more but I decided against it. I really had no intention of sounding sillier than I already did. Furthermore, by mentioning it, she would have realised that despite my claims of having broken off, I still am very much tied. Oh yes, I also mentioned that I would like to do, which is to fly into the skies by para sailing or just about anything which could take me into the skies and make me feel like a bird.

But to come to think of it, what would I do if indeed the world really were to come to an end tomorrow? I seriously don't know. But then again, don't we all face this question everyday of our lives? No disrespect meant but, what I am referring to is we face this question in a sense that how do we know that we would not see the light of day the next day or that whether or not the next breath which we take could be our very last? I know this may sound radical but to think of it, it is very real. How can we ascertain that we would live to see out our every plan? How do we know that every time we see a person or talk to that person, it could be the last time that we ever did? For all we know that person might end up dead the very next day. Frightful isn't it? Indeed, I have have never really thought about it myself until today. And that is why I sometimes take for granted everything which I have or every person which I have as a friend or as a family. I always take it for granted that they would alway be there when I needed them. And this explains my attitude of always putting saying something to someone off until saying it just doesn't mean anything anymore.

So, does this mean that from now on, since that I am conscious of it, I should live my live as if everyday that I live could very well be my last? Honestly, I still don't know. Like I mentioned to my other friend the other day. When it comes to most things, especially in human relationships, I am nothing but a helpless sail of a boat. Choosing instead to submit himself to wherever it is that the winds choose to take him. But then, this morning, while walking to my car, I modified it to, I am nothing more than a steering wheel. Something with the potential to steer but who will always need another person to do it for him. Maybe, I am just too scared or afraid to live everything to the maximum. But that's what I am. A coward. Too afraid to stand up to the world. Too afraid to own up to himself. Too afraid of rejection. Too afraid of reality. Choosing to hide behind his disabilities instead. It always seems easier that way. But I know that in the long run, it would only come back and hit me when I least expected it to. Like it has happened so many times before. I know it is easier said than done but, maybe this is a wake up call for my sleeping self. Maybe this is a jolt to get me out of my ever so comfortable shell and to go and face the world. Plato once said in his epic, Republic, "Philosophy is a journey which involves a very difficult quest to reach ultimate freedom and truth and which involves the questioning of our most basic beliefs." I believe that we can draw parallels to this because life in itself is like philosophy, it is a journey. A very difficult journey. And we are nothing more than the trapped men which Plato speaks of. The men who live, surrounded by the darkness of a cave. The men who perceive the shadows of objects to be real instead of the reality of the objects themselves.