pleasure
Creating for oneself
On a similar note, renowned American painter, Georgia O’Keeffe quotes how identifying the own individuality has helped to create best of her works.
“I know now that most people are so closely concerned with themselves that they are not aware of their own individuality. I can see myself, and it has helped me to say what I want to say—in paint.”
Obsession with Sports and Dance
The mature humans’ ability to indulge so crazily in sports like cricket, football, and the like often amuses me. While playing a game requires physical and mental engagement, the sheer craziness with which they watch and enjoy these sports is simply unexplainable.
Similarly, the idea of watching dance as a form of entertainment is something that only humans seem to be capable of. Dance is essentially a rhythmic, systematic movement of the body parts, either to an external tune or, in some cases, an inner musical rhythm. It must bring joy to the one who performs it, but the human tendency to derive pleasure from merely observing this activity is quite fascinating.
Expanding Experiences
Have you ever wondered how to broaden your own experiences?
Our creativity is often tethered to our imagination which in turn depends on our past experiences.
By venturing into unfamiliar territories, interacting with people from different cultures who speak unfamiliar languages, delightfully shocking our taste buds by tasting the local cuisine, discovering new genres of music and their cultural contexts, walking through an unfamiliar city, observing different lifestyles and traditions, delving into novels and movies from diverse genres and geographies and much more of such activities which disrupt our usual patterns of thinking and interpreting situations, ultimately expands our perspective and hence bursting the bubble of our imagination.
Happiness compared
When everything around you is pitch black, even a dim dynamo light was enough to guide the bicycle. In today’s world of focused high intensity neon lights, even the most luminous headlight is insufficient for the vehicle.
Similarly, when a person’s resources are limited, he finds joy in small things. As the commodity grows in value, so does his standard of satisfaction.
However, it is incorrect to assume that the poor or someone far below your level of success is deeply unhappy and living a miserable life. Nobody can escape from happiness. It transforms from one form to another.
Sadness arises from comparison. As Montesquieu said this 300 years ago,
“If you only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished; but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.”
Driven by Rewards
First day of the month is the day of payments for me. To pay all the credit cards bill at one place, I use the service called CRED. In turn, CRED uses me to sell its products to me. Here is how.
As usual, I paid a card bill. Alas! Bravo, it’s a task to pay the bill, so here is your reward for completing it: CRED gave me the game to spin the wheel (A skeuomorph of a typical casino game) 10 times. It promised that if I get 7- 7- 7 on each wheel, I will get something big.
A free game! Why not. I started spinning. For each spin you have to pay 1000 Cred coins (Yet another useless reward coins you get whenever you pay credit card bill. 1 rs payment = 1 cred coin). Each spin is designed in such a way that during round 5 or 6 you will be rewarded with something smaller of what you get if you hit the jackpot.
At round 5 I got some pattern matched and wow! Congratulations to myself, I got 8 days free membership at Cult fit!. Then I noticed, this game was sponsored by Cult fit- A fitness organization.
According to Cult fit: I got totally satisfied with the reward of 8 days free membership to their classes. Definitely I will try that. They can influence me in those 8 days to enroll me into their annual or monthly plans. After all, fitness is what we all worry about. ‘Taking care’ of myself is what matters in the end in this polluted, contaminated and adulterated world.
Oh! For 8 days, shouldn’t I shop for some workout outfits? After all, I must look healthy lifestyle enthusiast. Wait, Cultfit has their own clothing brands to satisfy my needs. They can’t be more good to me!
Meanwhile, CRED: See, you got a reward of 8 days of free membership just by paying a card due amount. We are so charitable. Would you like to try some more spins sponsored by other companies? If not, we have some more games and rewards for you. After all, keeping you glued to the app is utmost important to us so that we can sell more ads and attract more potential sponsors. Don’t you believe us? Ok, let us give you real cash backs of 2 Rs. Hope you believe us now. We work for your welfare.
Damn, I am uninstalling CRED.