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The glory of intangibility.

Admittedly, the title reeks of sophistication and mumbo-jumbo. Yet, read me out, persist and put in an effort to understand the lines.

As individuals, I reckon all of us are obsessed with the notion of quantifying. We set ourselves standards and goals. Unfortunately, with an intent and a foresight that such-and-such goal should be established as 'achieved' or 'failed' to the world at large, we begin to set yardsticks and measurable results. Few of the common goals that I have heard people set for self include 'losing 5 kg in 60 days', 'securing a 90% score in the upcoming exams', 'walking 30 minutes a day', 'burning X calories per day' and so on. I concur with the argument that certain goals need to be quantified as a measure of evaluation. However, I counter-argue that metrics need not be and should not be set for goals that are put in place with an intent to improve an individual's quality of life. The word 'quality of life' evokes majorly the feeling of accruing materialistic entities and the facilities available towards offering a comfortable life for the family. Quite ironically, that's quantity and not quality.

By quality of life, I intend to convey the most often neglected facets of emotional quality and intellectual quality. A person might have an high emotional quotient and yet, this is not displayed to people around him. He knows and understands that he has this emotional quality in him and basks internally. Another person might be intellectually sound, capable of deconstructing a personal issue scientifically and rationally. He does allow a certain suitable measure of scientific and logical intervention in resolving important emotional issues. Such goals do not warrant evaluation from the world or the society. It can only be construed as 'achieved' or 'failed' solely by the self.

I revel in the intangibility that these goals offer. You need not inform the society that you are aiming for a certain goal to be achieved since the end is not something quantifiable. Not something measurable. Not something tangible. It cannot be constrained and set within numbers. This awakens in oneself a wholesome feeling of satisfaction, fulfillment and joy at achieving an intangible goal. You get to understand your inner self better. A sense of liberation and freedom results when you try and succeed in understanding what makes you emotionally and truly happy. Materialistic pleasures are quite needed and they very much aid us in making our daily lives easy and by extension, happy. However, they offer you only pleasure, not joy. Ease, not exertion.

This concept of intangibility ties in with a previous post of Thoughts into the abyss?. I emphasize that there is quite a growing need to understand one's self better. Not that there was an era when this need was only a 'want'. On a tea-setting conversation the other day, a friend quipped "Like a pack of cards, my subject knowledge crumbles on poking its edges with a stick".  The same argument can be employed in the case of knowing yourself. We cocoon ourselves in a nice cozy shell where we would like none in the society to question our beliefs and ideals , actions or thoughts. A few of them may be rational yet we fear that an eloquent argument from the alter-voice of self or a confident voice from the society may render it the opposite. The consequences of such well-founded yet should-be-destroyed fears are several and mentally debilitating. And they are intangible.

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