Sometimes it gets very intimidating for me to carry on with the way the life suddenly changes. At some moments, things are too daunting to carry on, or at times you just don’t have what it takes. Personally, several of such moments I faced, they have been quite the reagents about how strong I am now today. Keeping personal affairs aside, when it comes to the relative world, I think all of us from Pakistan have faced too many moments that are just too much for our nerves. Let it be the political turmoil, the mercurial rise in the cost of living of a fickle economy, the utterly depressing security situation, all of them are just the nuances of a frustrated society descending, I fear, into a failing state.
Presently, I’m more concerned for the tiny traces of tolerance and tranquillity that are left in our society. First, the assassination of Salman Taseer and today the assassination of Shahbaz Bhatti are just the hints to how much intolerable degrees of sentimentality our land has reached with issues as prickle as minority rights. I cannot begin to underscore that such murky motives of intolerances shouldn’t prevail in any society! Resilience was a word often used to describe the people belonging to this wonderful land; I fear we are testing this attribute beyond its limits with this continuous cycle of loss and destruction. There is a world enveloped in intolerance. Sadly, Pakistan ends up raising the bar from time to time.
Today for a breather, I was just reading through the poetry of Edgar Guest, which is out of fashion in our sophisticated age; it’s unambiguous, unsubtle, too moralizing, not enough vivid images and fine-drawn metaphors and understated suggestions. While reading this, I’m compelled to think as if we as a nation will stand up against this un-permissiveness and bigotry, or scum to the comminating extremism,. In Guest’s words:
“You must decide in the face of the test,
Whether you’ll shirk it or give it your best.”
You
You are the fellow that has to decide
Whether you’ll do it or toss it aside.
You are the fellow who makes up your mind
Whether you’ll lead or will linger behind
Whether you’ll try for the goal that’s afar
Or just be contented to stay where you are.
Take it or leave it. Here’s something to do!
Just think it over — It’s all up to you!
What do you wish? To be known as a shirk,
Known as a good man who’s willing to work,
Scorned for a loafer or praised by your chief,
Rich man or poor man or beggar or thief?
Eager or earnest or dull through the day,
Honest or crooked? It’s you who must say!
You must decide in the face of the test
Whether you’ll shirk it or give it your best.
Nobody here will compel you to rise;
No one will force you to open your eyes;
No one will answer for you yes or no,
Whether to stay there or whether to go.
Life is a game, but it’s you who must say,
Whether as cheat or as sportsman you’ll play.
Fate may betray you, but you settle first
Whether to live to your best or your worst.
So, whatever it is you are wanting to be,
Remember, to fashion the choice you are free.
Kindly or selfish, or gentle or strong,
Keeping the right way or taking the wrong,
Careless of honor or guarding your pride,
All these are questions which you must decide.
Yours the selection, whichever you do;
The thing men call character’s all up to you!
– Edgar Guest
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