Post dinner, I started watching Pele: Birth of a legend. A very emotionally charged sports movie which takes you through the life of undoubtedly the greatest football player. This isn’t a review but I’d still recommend you to watch it.
Picture this, a young Pele, upset over his father crying because Brazil lost in the 1950 WC, promises that he’ll bring the World Cup home.
It’s dramatization. Agreed.
When as a viewer you watch this, knowing very well, that of course he’s going to get the cup, a lot of other things strike your mind. Among them are the unsaid promises we’ve all made to our own parents. I’ve made. Unknowingly.
Not all of us are Pele. Not all of us are gifted. Not all of us can bring World Cup glories or whatever it’s equivalent is.
We are the majority. The mediocres.
We fail too.
We excel as well. Sometimes.
Our definition of success is way too different. Different than each other. Different from our own parents. And I’m not even bringing the “Chaar log” from society into this.
While reading Nehru’s Discovery of India, it took me back to my school history book and one particular chapter on Buddhism and Jainism. One concept that had struck out was the “middle path”.
No, I’m not being preachy.
The concept of middle path in Buddhism is not what I remember but just the literal meaning of this term. I’ve always tried to stay right there. Not sway to either of the two sides. The grey. Yes.
The expectations that we have from our life. The goals that we aspire for and the picture of our future that we envision. This all can be entirely different from what our parents have imagined for themselves. We feature in their goals as well.
Some of us have been lucky to have parents who mould their own goals to suit ours. Finding the middle path.
Some just cannot.
Some of us also mould their goals to suit their parents’. Finding the middle path.
Some just cannot.
There’s no right here. Neither is anything wrong. It is about finding that spot. That middle path.
It is about fulfilling those unsaid promises by finding the middle path. Redefining goals. Our parents have already moulded themselves and their goals and continue to do. If we haven’t even thought of it, we should. It’s never too late.