What holds you together?

With exams drawing closer, my rate of watching TV increases in direct proportion. What with IPL matches and nice movies, studies seem the most boring option as usual. Anyways, was watching In Her Shoes. Its not really a classic, or something you would like to watch many times, but I liked it. One dialog made me think (There i go again……) A guy asks his friend whether she misses her job; she used to be, after all, the first to come to office and the last to leave. And she replies that it was not the work that she loved, it was just the thing that was holding her together, she would fall apart without having something to do.

What holds people together? Here are some options that I have seen..
Some people do live off work. Not workaholics, although they are a valid category too, but these are people who like the respect, the responsibility. People who like the position of importance that they are given, even if it means suffering on other fronts. What holds these people together? Respect.

Some people thrive on academic success. Given a choice to do something fun in the holidays, they would open a book and prepare for the next semester. Topping the class in exams, being the first to submit files, being the first to complete assignments, being the first to shoot upright when a professor enters the classroom. What holds these people together? Knowledge that they are ahead of others…even if it is by half a mark.

Some people need drama. They need to be told they are needed and loved all the time. They need attention. They need to live life like a movie, writing poems, holding conversations complete with sighs and giggles. They need to forget the so-called ties of society and enjoy their lives without caring for right or wrong, good or bad. It is happiness for them, not running away from responsibilities. What holds them together? The wild pleasure of doing something non-traditional, of going against the rules, and standing up proud having done so.

Some people need security. The knowledge that someone will be there to hold them when they falter in life. The build their lives, anchored around other people. They live their life through them, unaware, that others have their own lives to look after. These people clutch and grab at every relationship that they have, forever afraid that something will go wrong. What holds them together? Finding someone, who needs them as much as they need them.

Some people live off their contacts. The fact that 20 people will say hi to them on the roads int he city seems to give them a high. They gain lot of pleasure in flicking their cells on and calling XYZ to have your problem fixed, and give that knowing smile that says….there…its so easy for me to solve problems. What holds them together? Knowing that there is always some way in which they are useful, that they have a purpose.

Some people live for others. They spend their lives sacrificing and enduring, hoping that they are giving back enough of what they are getting. They find things to do, favours to extend, always ready to give, whatever it takes. What hold them together? The knowledge that their actions, somehow make them worthy of others’ love.

Whatever it maybe, there needs to be an object, or a person that makes life worth living. Everyone needs some source of satisfaction, of knowing that each moment is leading to some clear goal, some clear destination. I think thats the common factor that all human beings need. On that note, a beautiful quote:

“Well,” said Pooh, “what I like best,” and then he had to stop and think.  Because although Eating Honey was a very good thing to do, there was a moment just before you began to eat it which was better than when you were, but he didn’t know what it was called.  ~A.A. Milne

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