Do you remember the time when you started learning how to ride a bicycle, or the first time you entered a swimming pool? You started off with some support, and the knowledge that you had someone (or something) to fall back on. You could rely on your big-bro holding the bicycle for you. There was that reliable floating aid to keep your head above the water. You turned around and told your bro, ‘don’t let go!!’ And he assured you he won’t… but, he did. And you probably fell down, shouting at him for lying to you. At that moment, it was difficult to comprehend why he did that. It was difficult to imagine entering water without a life-jacket on.

Now, flash forward a few years. Imagine your big-bro still running after you, while you pedal the bicycle, just in case you went off-balance after hitting something on the road. Imagine swimming with your life jacket on, all the time. Doesn’t sound much fun, does it? Well, sometime back a friend provoked this thought in me and I asked myself, isn’t a life-jacket actually the worst thing to happen to an aspiring swimmer. If they were never invented, we would all just learn to swim better, because we would know, we are on our own. It would be entirely up to the swimmer to make every possible effort and take every possible precaution to make sure his/her head stays above the water.

Isn’t that what life is also about. Learning to keep your head above the water? We meet people, make friends, fall in love and basically at some level, we are accumulating life-jackets, to fall back on, to keep us afloat when we screw up. Isn’t, by that logic, your life-jacket actually your worst enemy? An enemy who assures you that it’s okay to screw up, because it’s there, for you, always. It sure does save you, but it never teaches you how to keep your head above the water. It basically rewards your weaknesses and mistakes.

Have you ever feared what if you go through an entire life-time, accumulating life-jackets and never really learning to swim on your own? People say life is an adventure. Is an adventure really adventurous, when you know you can not drown or get hurt?

Okay, why stop here; let’s take this a step further. Haven’t we been taught since child-hood, ‘A friend in need is a friend indeed’? I asked the same friend who started this chain of thoughts. Isn’t it wrong at a basic level? If your friends are always there, to catch you falling, you will never learn how not to fall over. Let me present my dilemma. If I always strive to be there, when a friend needs me, unconditionally … always. And after some time I realize that my being un-conditionally available as a fall back is actually the reason my friend goes ahead and recklessly screws everything up again and again. Am I being the life-jacket which is rewarding my friend for failing to learn from his/her mistakes and stay afloat on his/her own? I know the thought is very unilateral and unrounded, but still worth a thought, isn’t it?

Let me stretch your patience a little further and ask you, What If thousands of years ago, the giraffes had monkey friends who would climb up the tree and throw leaves and fruits down for them to eat? Give it a thought!!

PS: Blessed are those who have life-jackets which never fail and big-bros who never stop running besides them !!