I was working on tomorrow's presentation with the television on.
At times, when I work on some important but boring presentations, then I usually turn on the television and tune it to a movie's channel or play some music. This way it does not feel like that I am alone and working late night. So, I did the same today.
After two movies and a bottle of energy drink I am now half way through the presentation. After all it is a forty slides presentation which has to be explained in a four hour meeting. However, I am not writing this write-up to share about the presentation. I wanted to share the movies I saw in the meanwhile. I think now I have given enough of back ground, so lets go and talk about the movies.
The first movie was "The Day the Earth Stood still (2008)" followed by "The Adjustment Bureau (2011)"
At the end of the first movie the protagonist says "At the precipice; we change". This was quite a heavy message. Indeed we change when tested. It is true in all sphere. In the movie, this philosophy was portrayed at a civilization/species level. However, when I repeated the same words for a few times, I realized that this principle is true even at individual level. After all individuals make the society. I was able to relate that 'human-will' also acts in the same way. Until at the brink, we are unlikely to act. Our mind is like one of the frog from the boiling frog experiment. Usually we boil alive and die in the boiling water. However, sometimes we leap and save ourselves. But this usually happens at the precipice. History is full of such references. Literature is full of such references. The most famous is that necessity is the mother of invention. Obviously the change is the invention and the precipice is that necessity that forced us to innovate and invent.
After thinking a lot about on this line; I made peace with it and I made it my whatsapp status; I even put a picture to go with the status. The idea was that I was feeling myself at the precipice and wanted to hope that I will change this state and come out victorious.
I took a break from this thinking loop and started working back on the presentation. Then started the second movie. This one came with a lot of recommendation from my friends. I wanted to see it but then there was a lot of work that needed to be done. I put the television on mute and carried on with the work. Towards the end of the movie, the protagonist was moving from places just by using normal doors as a portal, It was then the movie caught my attention. I turned up the sound. The protagonist wanted to have a free will even when the most powerful entity and its enterprise was against him. This was interesting, so I started watching it. This man was also pushed to the precipice. The only change from the previous scenario was that he had an easy choice. In the previous movie the only choices were either to evolve or perish. Also, in the previous scenario one had to work to survive and doing nothing will make one reach one's end. But this one was a different situation. He had reverse of choice from the previous movie. Doing nothing will ensure survival while doing something is taking the risk. One option was a life of comfort where everything worldly was made available by the enterprise at the price of his free will. The second option was to try and test himself against this enterprise. He chose the later and lost. It was the end of the movie where the enterprise got inspired by his efforts to fight back and changed its own plan. It was a happy ending. However, I doubt a happy ending would actually happen if this was a real life scenario. Even if such happy endings may happen, they are not very usual as it is very unlikely that your adversary will have a change of heart in nick of time. So, the daunting question is as what I would have chosen when faced with same situation.
At the moment, I think I would have taken the later option as was done by the protagonist. The reason is simple. If it is about free will and if it is a question of only my life then there should not be any hesitation in taking the risk. The only deterrent could be if and when my actions leave others who depend on me without any choice. Otherwise, giving it a chance would be hell of an experiment and experience, wouldn't it be!
Having said the above, I am now pondering at 2 AM at night in a foreign land as what am I doing with my life. Where are my risks, experiments and tryst?
One may plan very well and have back up plans to take care of all the scenarios.
The interesting fact is that a plan will always be flawed. The irony with plans cannot be stated more brilliantly than done by Hofstadter's Law ( - "It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's Law"). As such, all we end up doing is plugging the holes to keep the ship sailing till it reaches the shore.
Again, the above scenario is a very favourable scenario as in this one you get the chance to test your plan. Unfortunately, reality is even harsher. Even if one dares to risk everything in a trial with destiny, it is still up to destiny whether to test one's resolve or not.
The more one philosophizes over this, the more insentient one would become.
In this self imposed disdain, I may conclude the above. How so ever depressing it may read/sound but my next line is a tribute to the human spirit of hope and fighting back that still ignites my passion to experiment and fuels my desire to experience.
"
Insentient and at the precipice! Let's see, where next!"
:-)
