Thought Shots

We all like to believe that we can do anything. That anything is possible and so forth. But there are some things which we have to, no matter how much we may want otherwise, accept as unalterable truths. We try to live in denial, of course. But that hardly is the solution. We need to face the reality as it is if we are to live in peace. It is too short a life to be spent in regret over things that are unattainable. The serenity prayer is: “God give me strength to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” And it is not a defeatist philosophy. It is what I would call a philosophy that is rationally optimistic. Accept the things that you cannot change. It takes a lot of strength to do that. And not every one of us can gather that strength. One has to be brave enough to see things as they are and not paint one’s own rosy picture. A rosy picture that is nothing more than an illusion of the mind. Not that illu

Sometimes we find it difficult to remain optimistic. We question our efforts because the grim reality stares us hard in the face. The kind of reality that is in complete contradiction to what we had envisioned. And for once, doubt creeps in with its dark shadow of despair. A little motivation goes a long way in such moments. I have heard some of Obama’s speeches and the one thing I have found consistent in all of them is hope. He gives you hope. No wonder then that he titled his autobiography, The Audacity of Hope . On the eve of the Boston marathon bombings, he said at a prayer meeting to the people of Boston, “... what the perpetrators of such senseless violence -- these small, stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build, and think somehow that makes them important -- that’s what they don’t understand.  Our faith in each other, our love for each other, our love for country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superficial differences there may be -- that is o