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The Down-Side of Being Practial

Do you remember how you felt about things like world peace, environmental conservation, corruption and the rest of it when you were like, 5 years old?


When one asks a student in class 7 about corruption, the student will reply with elaborate answers on how wrong it is to give bribes, get bribes, etc. But when one asks a student of class 11, you get surprisingly different answers based more on "practicality". A 11th standard fellow would try to explain to you why corruption is inevitable in India if you want to survive.
It's around the same time fellows stop believing in happy endings, eccentric dreams, and you know... the kinds of things that used to dominate your childhood mental environment. When you're a child, you feel like there are endless possibilities... Like you were born to do something truly great and wonderful... Like you were an important part of the world. But as kids grow up, they get "practical"... Something Walt Disney movies desperately try to prevent.
We have all heard people say "My childhood was the best part of my life" ... We know it's probably true, even in our own lives. But maybe childhood is the best part because you know so little of the world and feel enchanted by things adults just scorn at.

My theory however is that, when we grow out of childhood, we also grow out of ourselves. We put a mask on... trying to be someone else so the society would like us better. We decide that our childhood dreams were nonsensical. We stop believing in some of the most beautiful things in life, which actually make it worth living. In other words, we get disenchanted.

Maybe the enchantment of childhood is the real thing. How do you know? Faith and Reason do not always have to be two separate paths.
"Aerodynamically, the bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumble bee doesn't know it so it goes on flying anyway." ~ Mary Kay Ash
 I've said it a lot of times, but I think practicality is... sometimes over-rated.

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