“When was the last time you got your master health check-up done?” the doctor enquired. “No doc, I have never got a master health check up done,” the man replied. “Why so?” queried the surprised doctor, and added, “Post 40, you should get your master health check up done every two years.” The man said, “I don’t want to doc. Then they will come up with reports that may say my cholesterol level is high or I’m a diabetic… god knows, what else. Now I’m absolutely fine. One health check-up and I will start feeling like a sick man.”
Knowing very well that escapism can only be transitory, and also knowing very well that you cannot eternally escape anything in life, why do you still try to escape? Why do you hope against hope? Why is it that you don’t want to know what you must know? Just because you close your eyes, it doesn’t mean that the world will become blind. Eventually, what must be faced must be faced. Then, why at all eventually? Why at all postpone? Why at all delay? The forest fire you will face tomorrow is the little spark you tried to escape yesterday.
It is a fact that most of us lack the courage to face the facts of life. (I was the same till a few days back) That we lack the courage to face the facts of life is the first brutal fact that we must face.
I think my friend is drifting away from me. Only if you face this fact, something can be done about it. I think his friends are influencing our son more than we are able to as parents. A hard fact, no doubt, but only in facing it can something be done about it. I think my relationship is falling apart. True, a heartbreaking fact, but unwilling to face this fact is not going to solve anything. I think the competition is eating into our market share. I think some of our employees are nurturing the aspirations of joining the competitor. I think my kind of work wins me not only friends, but also enemies. Though I have always told him that it was his mistake, I know in my heart of hearts that I was wrong. The list is endless…
Only if you face the fact, something can be done about it. If you avoid the fact, it gets nastier and it revisits you. At least now, face the fact. Something can still be done about it. What you avoid does not go away with you. It gets uglier, and it revisits you. Every fact you escape from will haunt you in future with thoughts such as, “I should have… I could have… I must have…”
You can always seek the right medical intervention, follow the proper fitness regime and eat the right diet. You can ease out the differences with your friend through open communication; you can take the initiatives to become your son’s best friend, open up new markets, find a human beacon who take you from here to there, and take the courage to say the small-big word ‘SORRY’. Something can always be done. Face the brutal facts of life courageously; knowing very well, only then something can be done about it.
Everything ever solved, was solved only because somebody was ready to face it. It all starts with the courage to face the facts. In facing the facts that you had always tried to avoid, for the first time you are looking at life square in the eye. Escapism is not for people like you and me. What must be faced, must be faced, sooner rather than later.
