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Live it still

COVID-19 will not be the end of tragedy, and it may surely not be the last pandemic.

ByJanghaolun Haokip

Updated 9 Aug 2020, 8:30 am

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Thousand questions to life but there is just one answer –live it still.

Life is a beauty to see; a blessing to live, and an opportunity to explore. It is a privilege we must hold on to. To be born and to be alive is an adventure we must learn to enjoy and make the most until we die.

Life is also rude and cruel; it is a curse to live, and a road to misfortune. It is a spell we cannot break away from. To be born and to survive is a tragedy we helplessly fall in as victims until we die.

Indeed, life is a mystery. It is an adventure to a mystery land. It is a ride to a distant place, somewhere that has remained undiscovered since the beginning of mankind –someplace we know nothing about.

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Of course there are tales spoken of those who have once travelled this path, but unfortunately not where the path finally leads to. Because you don’t know where it goes until you die, and once you die you cannot come back to narrate the story of how it all went, how true or false it is the beliefs that we hold, the notion that we devote to, the concept of life, and most of all the entirety of existence.

We may then have every reason to wonder what is the meaning and the answers to living. Why do we come to the world, not because we want it but just simply as we do. It sounds weird and funny at the same time that someone’s humour had us coming to the world simply as a result of our parents love story and physical and sexual attraction. The true reason may not be as silly as this but the fact is that it remains unknown.

Such is life, which even the greatest scientists cannot entirely prove, or the greatest philosophers cannot fully understand. It is just too big an entity for us to comprehend. It is literally out of the capability of our minds to try to understand not the entirety of our existence but not even the existential nature of existence. Imagine the vastness of the universe; imagine it will take you a thousand lifetimes to explore the ends of the universe, just if in case there is an end. What do you say?

Live it still! In a big vast universe with a thousand question unanswered, don’t be that one person to fail to live. Why bother about the things we can’t change when we don’t bother about the things we can’t help? We know pain and joy, that’s enough, let’s struggle through pain and live through joy. Isn’t it as simple?

There is beauty to see and live. The mornings are particularly beautiful to me. The night as well with its silence and serenity are beautiful too. I promise also that it is a lot of fun to just stare at the sky and wonder how it had come about and what would exist beyond it. I remember a friend who told our younger children in the village that if the sky would be rolled away, lots of eatables would fall from heaven. I don’t know why he would say that, but it was fun for the children at least.

Even as we fight the pandemic today, it is still a beautiful life. The only problem becomes the fact that you can’t go out. But on the other side of perception, staying home is the only answer to spending more quality time at home. It’s just a matter of choosing our priorities. We just have to make sure that we choose our priorities with much care and concern and choose to be optimistic, to look for the best in every situation. Because once when you learn to be optimistic, you will always find a way; find a meaning in even the littlest things.

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As much as we do not know most things in our lives, the universe, and the entirety of our existence, we know that life will always be a mystery. It will bring both tragedy and ecstasy, and both pain and joy. It will therefore remain up to us to decide or choose how our lives would be. If we cannot choose what must happen with us, we can still choose what can happen to us. These are entirely different concepts. In simple words, you will be hurt, and you can either cry with despair or simply cry because you know that it will go away. Which will be much easier in that situation?

COVID-19 will not be the end of tragedy, and it may surely not be the last pandemic. The Beirut blast can happen again somewhere else, the floods in Assam may take more lives –we will always be threatened somehow. But unless we die, we must live. Moreover, we will continue to be faced with threats if we wish to perceive so. But otherwise, every moment we live is an opportunity to better our lives as human beings or at least we can always save ourselves from being victims of the certain facets of life and save others too.

Live it still; the joy, the pain, the hurtful, the smiles, whatever it is in life, we got to live it somehow. If something hurts, just close your eyes and tell yourself that you’re not alone. We got to live until we die. We should always remember our entire existence is a part of the system of nature that we cannot change but only adapt ourselves to.

Live it still, even if there are endless battles to fight. Live it still because it is just this one life. Live it still, most of all Live to Live, but not just survive.

You are only one step away from living the life of your dreams, choose to live every moment.

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COVID-19 pandemicLife

Janghaolun Haokip

Janghaolun Haokip

Social Activist and General Secretary, International Human Rights Association (IHRA), Manipur

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