7.8 billion people

 

There are times when my brother just randomly states the fact that there are 7.8 billion people currently existing on this earth and that I and him are just two of them. This had always been a topic that never incited my interest. I feel like I didn’t really get any leads as to why this should matter, or not matter. So formerly, I would disregard it. However, in contrast to my usual demeanor, this has lately been getting a lot on my head and I think that I need to write this down.

This might be an immeasurably randomly-dealt blog because I really lack clarity on this. However, agreeing with Ellen Langer’s statement, written in her book power of mindful learning, “To be mindful is to be confident and uncertain” I also believe in some level of uncertainty to be facilitating.

Now for a moment, just imagine that you are standing in a hall that is spacious enough to accommodate every single person on the globe. What will be the first things to matter?

1-What is everybody else doing?

2-Why are we gathered here?

3-Are our favorite people here?

4-Who are they with?

5-What am I doing here?

I mean, even if you somehow reach to the reality of the first four, wouldn’t the fifth question just blow away your mind. For me, just imagining a situation like this is equivalent to touching a naked wire with nothing to protect from an electric shock, or if I’d rather be philosophical, reality shock. Out of all the 7.8 billion people, including all the people that I look up to and get inspired by, why should somebody even care about my existence.

In this delusionally large hall with all the top-tier faces, I shall be nothing but a black sheep. Like a particle of dust that you take notice of in a sun ray, but not even a child should try to catch it more than twice because it seems…. useless. Likewise, If I was unneeded, why am I even here. What makes me a part of this region of the galaxy. I am not sure, if this activity does any great magic but it definitely pierces the very foundations of ego, arrogance and pride. Freeing you from unnecessary and petty worries, it offers you a world where you see that everybody is busy navigating ‘how to exist’ hence you are not the only one to have miseries. Rest of the world, like your very own self, is also unvaccinated against most encounters.

You see everybody, yet you choose to dive into you own self. You fathom what it is like to be unrecognized. I have now begun to acknowledge that closed doors aren’t always eye-opening and I really do get our elders’ advice “step out of that little box of yours” Sometimes, to be able to find meaningful solitude, you first need to be crowded.

But, I in no capacity aim for my conclusions to make me reach to a sort of victim identity because that should neither be the standard nor the outcome of reflection. Being mindful doesn’t mean overthinking enough to successfully become a hopeless youth who is despondent enough to see the silver linings. So, I think, the learning supposed to be taken from this is that “we are needed and valued, yet insignificant and small”. There is a purpose to our lives. The purpose advances us to significance.

Like a seed that is unsowed and seems of no use. But when sowed can greenify the earth.

Otherwise, what other reasons do you find for yourself to be in the list of the dwellers of earth. Unrecognized isn’t synonymous to unneeded. Our existence was decreed. Nobody, except Allah, could do it otherwise.

We may be just another of those dust particles in the ray of sunlight, but have you ever seen a ray without it? It sure is tiny. Nevertheless, the sun shines everyday for you to take notice of it. The day it doesn’t, you wait for the clouds to clear its path.