Sunday, May 22, 2005

View from the bottom

The view from top always seems better… you see more and far, you breathe less carbon dioxide and you are within reach of more ‘things’. When you are at the top… or close to it, others inevitably look up to you - literally or metaphorically as the case may be – and most people who are at the top tend to look down at those below them (little knowing sometimes that the people at the bottom may have a clear view of what’s up their pants or skirts. I don’t mean that in a vulgar sense, but it’s just that people at the bottom usually see all the dirt on the shoes of those who are at the top.)

The view from the bottom seems limited – always boring, often bleak and meaningless, sometimes hopeless – which motivates them to climb higher in pursuit of a better view at the top and more oxygen. People at the bottom, look up to those above them - sometimes with envy.

The bottom is not always the hell hole it is made out to look. It is perhaps the most insightful place to be… the place where you meet the real people behind the multitude of faces you see on the road… the place where you learn to appreciate the difference between genuine and cosmetic smiles and find the essence of unbinding and unconditional love; because when you are at the bottom, those above you do not have to put on a smile for you or bother to go out of their way to be nice to you. You are at the bottom of the food chain, the bottom of the pecking order, the bottom of the social heirachy... The University of Real Life however is at the bottom, from which you could graduate with the broadest appreciation of life and how you want to live it and how to treat others who are above you and below. After you have learned that, it may not matter anymore whether you reach the top or not.

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