Life is a frantic race. If you back off, someone will overtake you. When one is born, three vicious dogs - one of failure, one of suffering and one of heartbreak or mental weakness - are allotted to that person. As this man grows, the collars of these dogs loosen up. By the time this person is ready to run the race of life, these dogs are set free.
This is the moment when the person starts running, not towards the prize, but away from the brutal dogs. Therefore, the race of life doesn’t just deal with winning ‘against’ your competitors, but also preventing these venomous dogs from biting you. But there is a time, when one gets tired of running away from the dogs.
Hey you dogs! Give me a break. How long will you keep on bothering me?
So he stops, panting heavily, making sure that neither his competitors nor his dogs reach him. This break is what we all take to maintain relationships, go on outings and enjoy our lives. But again, the howling of the dogs approaching you strikes your ears. A shiver runs down your spine and you take your positions to start running again. And duh! The very next moment is of all those delirious runners continuing their races like lunatics. This race keeps on continuing until the person dies…and this was a brief description of life these days.
Now, my question is…what is the prize of this race? Are we going to win something valuable after running this race like maniacs? If you think success is the reward, then how long is it going to last? Forever? Not at all…in fact, you’ll have to continue that irrelevant race of life to maintain your so-called success. Then, is the reward happiness? Absolutely not…no soul can remain happy forever. Is the reward love? Don’t forget, you are always bad in someone else’s story. Will people remember you? I don’t think so. We don’t even know the name of a soldier who died in World War II. Then why are we running such a race? Is it just to get an illusionary reward or to escape away from the dogs? Your dogs are never going to stop running after you, not even if you cross the finish line. So what can you do? This is where I think the art of acceptance comes handy.
Stop running away from the dogs. Make them you friends. Accept them the way they are and welcome them into your life with a smile on your face. Because anyway, you’ll have suffering, failure and heartbreak even if you do or don’t run away from these dogs. It’s a universal truth. That strength required to face it all and blah, blah, blah is something that almost everyone is aware of. But the need to stop running a meaningless race is what people now need to know. Just halt, look behind and see how many people you’ve left behind, how many of your family as well as strangers are crawling behind you and trying to escape from ‘their’ dogs. Just look how many lives have ‘your’ dogs conquered, just to catch you red handed. Running away all by yourself is not the answer. You have to pick up the fallen ones and work hard and smart to make this world a better place to live in.
To sum things up, this little quote framed by me, myself and I explains it all:
Life is not a race, or a mountain range, or anything that you might’ve seen in your wildest dreams. Life in simple words is 'love'. The more you love, the more you live.
- Jerusha Thomas | Grade 9B
