Outlaws

Outlaws

Why must there be suffering and strife? Why must we endure emotional pain, and tear our minds out trying in vain time and again to decipher the meaning of life? Why is every attempt at finding that magical key to happiness in life futile? Why must families be torn apart? Supposedly educated and open minded people at loggerheads over the most trivial of issues, picking out every speck of dust in the others eye and yet, failing to see your own, more significant shortcomings? It seems that when two become one at the altar of God, the other significant people in one of their lives are torn apart between the “two halves” and end up taking sides. The strength and the future of nations lies in the grounding that young, impressionable minds are given in their first school, the school of life, the family. What a child learns in the presence of his parents and extended family, if applicable, forms the bedrock of his thinking and ideologies for the rest of his life. If a kid constantly watches his parents bickering and arguing is becomes embedded in the child’s mind that these things are the acceptable way of social conduct, that there’s absolutely nothing wrong in resorting to domestic violence to settle scores or to vent frustration.

The limits and boundaries of what is acceptable behaviour and what is not, in society get skewed and seem unclear to someone who hails from a shaky family background. This in turn breeds evil on its own. Crime, violence, things done in a fit of rage, oh the evil that men can inflict on each other. Why is it that those united in holy matrimony find it so difficult to get along with their so called “out-laws”? In most cases people build a wall between themselves and these alleged perpetrators of evil and settle down to life on the wrong side of that wall, never daring to breach it in an attempt to get to know the people on the other side better that they already don’t. Why must it be so? Doing this almost inadvertently results in the festering of evil thoughts about the people on the other side of the divide where every action of theirs is viewed upon as having and ulterior, evil motive. The main aim being the downfall of the new entrant into the family. Now which sane person would wish evil on someone so closely attached to someone they love, irrespective of whether they can see eye to eye or not? Spitting out the bitter taste of hate? Accusations flying thick and fast? Baseless talk? Tales spun in an instant?

Communication is the key in such situations but the most difficult barrier to overcome is the mindset of both concerned parties. Neither willing to be the one to take the first step to brokering peace, this difficult and essential task is usually left to and incompetent outsider who , more often than not takes undue advantage of the nature of the two warring factions, to spread evil. Herein lies planted the seed of the grapevine, that evil tree of Satan that encourages even the most genial and unassuming of people to be messengers of ill will and word against other people. The person called to broker peace ultimately ends up feeding the outside world juicy titbits of the inside happenings of the household that ideally, only a trusted insider should have had access to. The germination of evil then begins and the vicious cycle that is gossip and idle talk takes over all involved.

The road to hell is always enticing and welcoming in the initial stages but the road to heaven is laden with difficulties and thorns and is the path that is readily shunned by many. I don’t want to sound like and ideological idiot not do I want to sound like an agnostic ,but all I can say is that I’d love to choose the path less trodden, the uphill struggle, for the rewards, though delayed, are immense.

In the words of Robert Frost:

And I have promises to keep;

And miles to go before I sleep.

And another few words that keep me going:

Two paths diverged in the road before me,

One well walked and broadened;

The other laden with burden;

And I chose the path less trodden.

Peace.