been there done that | ಯೆಲ್ಲಾ ಮಾಡಿ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿರೋದು

This is something some people seem to be prone to saying a lot of the time. When somebody’s enthusiastic about something, they may comment smugly along the lines of “you’re seeing these things only now, I’ve done all that years ago…” or “I know everything that’s to be known about it” or “ok good you go do it and tell me all about it later (yawn)”.

But imo what enthusiasm translates to is energy, and a complacent person is lacking it, or rather is ignoring it. What a pity, such infinite energy available within us all the time, and we are ending up simply ignoring it! Of course, one may say that it depends on personal interests which are different among different people, and even for the same person change over time. One may say “given such and such a situation, that’s when I really become enthusiastic”. But when one says such things too often, what usually results is becoming unenthusiastic about almost everything!

Recently I was chatting with a teenager who was telling me about her different comic books, and later on we and the rest of her family all played scrabble. Though I’d read tons of comics myself long ago, and played countless games of scrabble, I didn’t feel any lack of enthusiasm to do it all over again, it was more like going back in a time machine and reliving some old memories! 🙂 So I totally fail to understand this philosophy of “been there, done that”.

Its the same with trekking as well, people say that at some stage of life they’ve done so many trips that they don’t really feel like going out anywhere any more. I’ve roamed the Welsh mountains and the Alps in Austria and Switzerland, among some other pretty cool places but still I find that even a tree looks like a magnificient three-dimensional work of art…

[I may be making myself look like a hero here as a proof of concept, though there have been plenty of times when the reverse has been true as well 😉 So what’s written below is applicable as much to me as anybody else…]

I find it surprising how we humans are perpetually prone to obscuring our perception of current events or opportunities due to comparison of some past memory of some place/time.

IMO one of the most beneficial abilities one can manage to acquire as a life-skill is the ability to let go of the past. Of course taking photographs and writing about past events is a kind of holding on, but imo thats not too bad as long as its more of a conscious (and hopefully constructive) activity, rather than something thats always running at the back of the mind obscuring perception of current events.

The main point (not at all new or pathbreaking by itself really) is the newness in every moment of life.

With such a perception, one can rarely ever get bored of appreciating dewdrops on a plant’s leaves illuminated by a neon streetlight on a rainy evening. Or a multicolored sky where all the clouds are illuminated by the setting sun. I personally hope I never end up some day saying “oh… the same old colorful sky thing all over again”! 😉

Lets say we consider an idli (or a sandwich, whatever is your staple food you’ve been eating a lot of your life). Its actually possible to eat an idli… as if its the first time we’ve ever eaten an idli. Because every idli is unique. Every single morsel of one particular idli is unique. We miss this uniqueness simply because we take it for granted!

Or consider walking. Every single step is unique. We’ve been walking most of our lives, but if very rarely do we actually walk while we’re walking 🙂 – its actually pretty cool to do just that. Though walking sounds like a very mundane thing that we’re all experts in, its actually possible to improve upon it as well.

In general, enthusiasm can sometimes get mixed up with a feeling of incompleteness or restlessness as well. But as it evolves over time towards something more and more unconditional, its a lot more peaceful 🙂 – best described as a quiet joy.

See also: video clip