To Do Or Not To Do ?

“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd.” 

Here are some of the best lines from the Bard of Avon’s nib, Hamlet’s soliloquy. In the above context, Prince Hamlet is extremely unsure of himself and often wavers between the two extremes – life’ and ‘death’

But, I am neither going to talk about Shakespeare’s greatness nor glorify Hamlet’s decision here. In fact, after reading these lines more than once, I realized there dwells a fundamental actuality which almost everybody experiences in their everyday lives. This is the most confusing sort of fear which can empower your thoughts for more than you can ever imagine. Even though our minds may not necessarily oscillate between the extremes of life and death, we often find ourselves in an unwanted state of fickleness which is usually capricious. Now, for the ones who have already started falsely convincing themselves that they never land up in such moments of obscure bemusement, here are some simple instances from our everyday happenings.

Don’t you ever decide to text anybody and go till the extent of even framing the entire message and just when you are about to add the recipient’s number, you hear a faint little voice within you asking you to stop; gradually the faint voice tends to yell at you and you immediately delete the whole text? In this case, it’s the simple fear of the reply or maybe the fear of no reply is something that impels you to question yourself – TO SEND OR NOT TO SEND?

Often we receive invitations for parties and we are all excited to attend the party and at the twelfth hour, it suddenly strikes that there is going to be that one person whose presence makes you feel uncomfortable and after a while, you not too gladly decide to miss the party. 

Here, TO GO OR NOT TO GO is the ultimate million dollar question.

The most common instance of vacillation is when we reluctantly eat up our words when they are at the tip of our tongues. The thought often pops up – TO SAY OR NOT TO SAY? We indeed face such moments every now and then, don’t we?

Now, the supreme question is 

“WHERE DOES THIS INDEFINABLE CONFUSION STEM FROM?” 

Is it our fear of confronting or our fear of losing an integral part of our existence? Ultimately, it is a vicious circle that has no definite end whatsoever. Especially, even after making the decision at the end of the conflicting thoughts, we still keep wondering as to why we made that very decision and why not otherwise. In all the above instances that I mentioned, our lack of decisiveness is very much visible.

In the case of sending the msg, we ultimately are afraid of the repercussion but we never realize that our not sending the msg might widen the gap which tends to becomes unbridgeable on the longer run. So, in the end, the loss is unavoidable so why fear at the first place?

Now, coming to the second example, we miss the party in order to avoid the uncomfortable feeling we would feel in that SINGLE person’s presence. But, we tend to forget that we miss all the other giggles and laughter in the bargain. Why entertain the not so important EGO and lose all the fun? Why give one SINGLE person so much of importance especially when they make you feel nothing but uncomfortable? But, again, we generally tend to avoid the rest of the group and focus only on that not at all important person.

Finally, coming to the last and the most common confusion – TO SAY OR NOT TO SAY? Don’t know about anybody else, but I personally experience this every single day on various occasions. If I do not agree with some statement, it is not always possible for me to say it out aloud though I may be dying to shoot my point of view. Why don’t I exercise my freedom of speech? Oh no! Do I even have it? But, this is again an inexplicable fear which creates a chaotic situation within my thoughts and at the end of the day; I decide to keep the words to myself. This may lead to unexpected consequences but saying them aloud too might not be very pleasant, will they?

This is not at all any ailment which can be cured with the help of medicines but it is indeed a never ending conflicting situation which we have to live with till the day we fall asleep forever. We cannot run away from these clashes; neither can we hide from them or escape them. All we can do is face them with a brave heart, make the decision that your heart prompts you to make and leave the rest on the SUPREME POWER that governs us all.

Peace!