Comes a time in a man’s life when nothing much matters, when one just wants to say, the hell with everything, who cares?

One only hopes that such times are few and far between, otherwise our world, the cocoon we have built around ourselves that is one’s personal world, will be a world devoid of any purpose or hope for a better tomorrow.

A better tomorrow? For whom, you have to ask. The wise man will rather say, “A better today,” ‘cause it’s the moment that matters, it’s the moment that one can really do something to make a difference. And, anyway, if today is good, there’s a better chance of tomorrow being good, as well. Oftentimes, “a better tomorrow” is just an excuse for not taking responsibility for the “today.”

As it is, who knows what tomorrow will bring? It’s out of our hands. This means that being more aware and responsive to the moment can be meaningful and fulfilling. But, this requires one to avoid the “Who cares?” and “Whatever!” syndrome that could so easily affect each one of us, and become more sensitive to the world outside one’s own.

Nevertheless, there’s great comfort in cocooning oneself inside a thick skin. Just imagine how impossible it would be to stay in your job if you were not thick-skinned enough to be immune to the never-ending kich-kich of your unreasonable boss, or how long married couples would remain married, if they didn’t develop some immunity to the hours of kich-kich that crops up between partners time and again?

It’s been two years now that I have been driving every day for about twenty minutes to reach my office, and nowadays, I find myself in a numb state when doing so, my mind totally blank. Yes, I have developed immunity to the otherwise really irritating and ever-present traffic woes, and this has enabled my daily commute to be more sufferable. You must surely have heard of the “road rage” syndrome—that’s what happens when you are thin-skinned.

But, and this is a big but, who will do what’s needed to be done today if more and more people start living inside their own small cocoons? And, what can be expected from the coming generations, if they, too, go deeper into their own cocoons? Actually, they already have! What with virtual reality being the preferred mode of living today.

Anyway, all this is just random rambling, so please excuse the same. Like said at the beginning, comes a time (sometimes) in a man’s life when nothing much matters.

But, because you have still read it to this point, you deserve better, so here’s a nugget for you. According to the sage, we are born innocent, trusting, emotional, enthusiastic, optimistic, and unendingly curious. With time, family, friends, education, society, country, and the ways of the world itself, teach us to build a strong armor around ourselves—a survival instinct, no less—with skepticism, suspicion, indifference, apathy, pessimism, and insensitivity its prime components, And, in due time, we lose ourselves, not knowing who we are.

Then comes a time, for the more wise, when the unpeeling begins in the quest to know oneself. And, finally, when the rare few manage to do so—a complete unpeeling of skin thickened by years of social conditioning—the growing back into a childlike (as opposed to childish) state of being begins to happen. As they say, a rebirth, only this time, with full consciousness and total awareness. Enlightenment, no less!