The inevitability of sacrifice

Can we go through life without a major sacrifice? The answer is no and I hate that, but hatred doesn’t change reality. No matter how hard we try, sooner or later life does succeed in throwing up a crisis, whose answer lies only in sacrifice.

A chance meeting with a collegiate worked as a grim reminder of my decades-long belief.

The man, the hands of whose clock are still within a manageable limit, told me that he was worried and confused. He finds himself suddenly confronted with a great problem.

A chance meeting with a collegiate worked as a grim reminder of my decades-long belief.

Never before had he imagined that one day he would have had to face such a huge problem. He is 25 and like all men of his age full of arguments like: money is important, but not everything; it pays to be honest; one must value human beings and not their possessions; what’s life but a journey, etc.

Life for him now revolves around one person: Emma (name fictionalised). He likes her and we shouldn’t question him for that.

His friends feel that he can afford to invest his whole life in this single relationship because he has the extraordinary advantage of being affluent. His parents are wealthy. And nothing can replace the joy of family fat. It’s a well that never dries up. 

But his affluence has not affected his urge to grow as a social being. Good in studies, he now has an offer to join a multinational company as a well-paid executive. But between his new assignment and the girl stands distance, which in most cases destroys relationships. To take up the job he has to leave town and to continue with the relationship he has to leave the job.

It’s not the girl’s fault, not even the guy’s fault, not the fault of love that what appeared to be a lovely journey has turned out to be a rough ride. After all relationships are not bought, they just happen. But again it’s one of those happenings under whose weight lives could perish, if not homes. But that’s no reason why boys should stop fantasising and girls should stop inspiring them. I really don’t know for sure whether girls dream as much as boys.

To lose the relationship could mean the beginning of all his problems. Emotional stability, I am convinced, is as important as economic independence. Again, though one is not dependent on the other, both are terribly linked. While one ensures your peace of mind, the other ensures your place in society.

He knows it’s important to be both an officer and a lover. Even philanderers are forgiven if they hold important offices. Social standing has its worth. So do some people. He wants to rationalise his move, for the head rarely misleads. But man is naturally prone to realising what the heart says.

Therefore, the guy’s dilemma is genuine.  Because a loveless life is as painful as a status-less one. If smiles were enough we wouldn’t move out of our homes. And if status was all then we wouldn’t come back home.

Under the circumstances there seems to be only one answer: Sacrifice. But the great question is whom for what or what for whom.