Problems

That seem to plague our existence

Fear

Fear is the most dangerous thing to harbour in your mind; well that, and hopelessness would be close contenders. Fear stifles confidence, a sense of belief in oneself and eventually leads to disastrous consequences in whatever you do. Some amount of it is fine I believe, what I've often heard people refer to as 'positive nervousness', the kind you feel when you're at the onset of something important, something that you value or have put in a lot of hard work and mind into. That kind of 'fear' (I wouldn't chose to term it so however) is what makes us happy, gives us a sense of accomplishment and helps us feel excited about things/people/situations. The kind of fear that I am referring to here however is that which engulfs your mind and bod in a way that goes beyond your comprehension. The kind of fear which fuels inertia and self loathing, belittles your confidence and leads you on to the path of failure - whatever the term means to you. Pardon the use of such strong/extreme words, but I honestly believe that it helps in putting forward what I wish to say clearly. And clarity is one thing I am in much need of at this point.

Dependence

This one seems to be a necessary evil. We all need something or someone to lean on. For the ambitious ones it's work, for the passionate ones it's a higher purpose or calling, for some it's people and for the rest, a combination of all three in varied proportions. So many people, religions, philosophies have time and over tried to propose detachment as a route to enlightenment. Work or the pursuit of knowledge is usually seen as a closer means of attaining that end - because it is usually free of the erratic and unpredictable nature of human beings - but that isn't entirely true. That's because whatever you do requires you to deal with people in some way (and it's obvious why) so most of us are bound to get close to a few of them. The problem arises when one gives up everything else and centers one's life around another person. While that requires courage of a whole different kind, in my experience (through the people I've closely seen and been with) that isn't always the best thing to do. But then such people would seldom think of their own self interest while doing the things they do. There could be two ways of looking at such people - they either have an overwhelming sense of laziness and lack of vision to look at anything else or that of love to simply make a particular person the center of their universe.

Apathy

Love and hatred while both extreme, powerful and often misused word are the safer places to be in when it comes to one's mind. Neutrality is great as well, but indifference or apathy can be catastrophic. Maybe I'm just in the mood to use such strong descriptions but underplaying the words would dilute the message (if any). Apathy is an even more risky terrain to be one for those of us who have for long been driven by a sense of love for what they do. Don't think that I'm taking about the lot of passionate overachievers, I am simply referring to the regular lot of masses who just need to be able to answerable to themselves at the end of the day and convince themselves of doing what the are - be it the things they do, people they are with or dreams that they dream. There needs to be some sense of pursuit, of heading somewhere (not necessarily knowing where), of being okay with each day and what it brings and having a proactive attitude towards it all. It's when something in your heart dies - that thing that was driving you so far to do things, think through them and reach an end or sometimes start afresh - that things begin to fall apart. I call it apathy towards the self, towards others and towards life in general when one begins to behave this way. All of it eventually culminates into misery, complacency and mediocrity (I hate to use this word) - something that the world cannot accept if you wish to be in the race.


Confusion

I know it is unreasonable to expect clarity towards everything and everyone in life. Sure all of us need our own sweet time to what they call 'figure things out'. Some do, others don't - sooner or later. It's how things play out while you are in the middle of that state of confusion that actually decides how the cards turn out. When in a state of confusion, we somewhat surrender free will (in whatever limited ways it operates) and succumb to what we like to call destiny, fate or chance occurrences. Some would say that these would have a role to play even when you have absolute clarity regarding what you'll be doing, but still - it gives you this feeling (albeit delusional) of being somewhat in control or atleast broadly knowing what the hell is going on.
Otherwise you're just floating along, which may be enjoyable and liberating sometimes but often it's just suffocating to be in that place (and maybe here it's just the grass being greener on the other side syndrome playing out). Confusion and what it does to you varies from person to person I guess. I am just trying to say that too much of it is not too good..

More coming later..