The Footprints
When a traveler walks at a shore, he leaves his footprints behind. The tide naturally rises and falls erasing those footprints in the sand. English poet Longfellow sees the flood and ebb of tide as an unending flow of birth and death. The tide will rise and fall as usual, and people will journey from cradle to cemetery. "The little waves, with their soft, white hands efface the footprints in the sand," console us that our actions in this world will be forgotten over time.
We are walking at the shores of life, leaving footprints behind. These footprints tell a sad tale of fast dwindling biodiversity, toxicity in our food, water scarcity and worsening air purity, rising income inequality, threatened livelihoods, corruption, loneliness, distrust, frustration and much more. Did we realize that we are writing out our history through our thoughts, words, actions, and deeds? Do we feel that our footprints are pointing in a commendable direction? Can they be the point of reference for the next travelers coming to the shore?
The next travelers are no one else but our children. They are coming to the shore with a gleam in their eyes. However, they find that each footprint that we left behind is now engraved, not getting washed away by the waves, as Longfellow imagined. Young minds can very well see the journey of our life, our priorities, and our path. They are ascertaining that ours has been a mediocre legacy, or perhaps worse.
Do we wish to be remembered for leaving these somber footprints behind? If the answer is yes, then as a corollary, we want children to pay the price of our callousness, follies, and myopia. We have been following Yavat jivet sukham jivet, Rinam kritva ghritam pibet (Live so long you have a life, and live with all the comforts and luxuries. Take a loan, and drink ghee!). It seems imminent that bank balances may not protect our children from the threats of degenerating Mother Nature, and an insecure society that is badly in need of harmony and righteousness.
Lokgyanpeeth for Yuva
Can we not envisage next travelers' journey, particularly when we would have left the shore of life? Can we not see writing on the wall that our footprints shall not steer them to a path of contentment and happiness?
OR
We have a sense of fulfillment and be remembered for distinctive footprints? Make our children feel proud with our genuineness, farsight, and humility?
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