Roots and Wings

Wow what a way to kick off my blogging. Just while writing the last sentence of the first ever posting and pheww, the browser crashes and after a while I realise nothing actually got saved though it was auto saving! Reminds me of first ever assignment I tried doing in master’s, trying to be awake all the night just to realise you actually have to save documents at a particular allotted space on hard disk but not just on desktop because the computers would automatically restart at 2 or 3 a.m and everything on the desktop is vanished. Still living its legacy, I guess!

Well it was ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ on TV and I was excited for the reason it was commercial free! It was interesting to notice, the thing they say about the books, being true for movies too. You see the movie for ‘n+1’ time, you can still get away with a new take-home message. I wonder how I missed this particular piece that Jake (Josh Lucas) says to Mel (Reese Witherspoon) when they have the conversation in dog cemetery.

Mel: “I'm happy in New York, Jake. But then I come down here and... this fits, too.”

Jake: “Since when does it have to be one or the other? You can have roots and wings, Mel.”

I actually heard it as “ you can’t” and it was pretty convincing but later on looking at the transcript of the movie, I realized it actually says as above. Then the question spontaneously that came was ‘really, Can you have both roots and wings? (Yes, you can on a platter!).

I doubt if evolutionary biologists would agree with that. There is a reason why creatures had wings developed from their fins but do not have both. We know it’s the situation which dictates these changes and adaptations. So, is there a scenario which would require both roots and wings, apart from a potential description in Harry Potter. Scientifically, it is very unlikely because if you need to fly, wings would be of more help and similarly if you need to be firm, take the roots and leave out the wings. That’s the way nature has evolved. Culturally, yeah very much we can relate ourselves to having both roots and wings. It is the situation again, which brings out roots or wings when we are before family or friends.

But what if we were supposed to choose either roots or wings? I know it’s the damn ‘choice’, choice that Mr.Anderson (a.k.a Neo) had to make between red and blue pill, choice that Mel had to make between Jake and the guy from New York. It must be sounding too hypothetical but isn’t there any message if we dare to think beyond what is presented to us? I guess we would have accepted if Mel believed it was a right call to marry to the guy from New York. Apart from being a good person we cannot discount he is the son of the mayor of NY and a potential presidential material. Perhaps we would have bought either of the endings. What if I put the above sentence this way. I guess we would have accepted if Mel married the guy from NY and believed it was a right call. So we have two versions here. One is you believe in something and take a decision. Other is to take a decision and start believing in it. I am not sure how often the first one is successful but the second should have pretty good success.I am not attempting to advocate for any in particular but certainly would back off from telling if one is better than other.

I am sure atleast some of them would comment that the second scenario is rather conservative approach and would even go far enough to say it is for losers. May be but loser only in their dictionary; might be conservative when gauged relative to their approach. Similarly, whatever others think, it would not matter no more than if it was a ‘i’ or ‘y’ in one’s pursuit of happ(i/y)ness. “COGITO ERGO SUM – I THINK, THEREFORE I AM” – Descartes. If I believe I am happy no matter what, I am indeed. It is just matter of how long I can remember ‘I have to be happy’ or maintaining myself in the ‘state of happiness’ as long as possible to be happy. Have that focus always and though many things to worry about (we all know there will always be one), still I can be happy! I do not know what else Buddha would have realized!

If you are good at reading the situation and its potential demands, you know what to pick from roots and wings. You are clueless, pick one by your instincts or logic or passion because there is no ‘correct choice’ and it is not that you have a 0.5 probability of success (or happiness). Believing in their choice, one can prove that the choice was worthy.

I’ll pick the wings! And I bet Neo ( who picks the red one in movie) would still have had the same excitement, intensity and done wonders if he had swallowed the blue pill :-p, wouldn’t he? ;-)

Fact: On 18^th June’09, US senate has unanimously passed a resolution apologising for slavery and racial segregation. 19^th of June, also called as ‘Juneteenth’. In 1865, this day was commemorated as end of slavery.