Oh Poor me!
Self pity is easily the most sincere of the
emotions one can feel. The simple reason being it is easiest to sympathize and
empathize with one self. And the best
part, the complete absence of objectivity as it concerns one self.
The earliest form of self pity might
be when we would have hurt ourselves as a child. For instance, when a child
falls down, he/she is showered with attention and love like never before. If
you would have noticed, the child will show the wound to anyone who cares to
pay attention. When the child shows that he/she is feeling bad about oneself,
people around also does the same. The child picks this up fast.
Later on, we feel bad for ourselves
for having to complete the school home work. The feeling that why am I made to go
through all this and how tiresome it is for me! Not many parents might
encourage self pity at this point but by then, we ourselves would have mastered
the art of feeling sad for oneself.
This emotion follows us like a
shadow. It comes back whenever we are dealing with a crisis.This eventually becomes a habit and
we try and reason all the pitfalls we committed earlier on in Life.
It is good to have some sense of
self pity for one need to console oneself to gain some strength. One needs to
empathize with oneself to derive some strength from within. It helps in understanding
that we have the strength to sail through such a situation.
But what happens when self pity
goes beyond the limits? I would like to think it is at this instant when
Laziness manifests itself. The sympathy for oneself reaches such a point that
we decide the task at hand cannot be handled by us. It is then when we decide “I
have studied enough for today. I am tired. I can’t learn anymore!” This becomes
a way of Life. We find umpteen reasons for giving up various things in Life and
console ourselves that it is ok to bypass the situation rather than taking it
head on.
May be, among the best things that
we can aspire to attain with our lives is the ability to show an ounce of the
self pity we indulge in for ourselves towards others for it would make the world
a much better place to live in.
Arun Babu
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