The Law of Balances

There has been another demise in the family. My father’s cousin. In other words, my second cousin's dad. My second cousin was my batch mate in Engineering. Thats sounds ominous, isn't it?

I guess yearly there is roughly about 2-3 deaths in every large family. Generally, when you are kids, you tend to lose the great grandparents or grandparents. As you grow older, the age of the deceased nears your age. Then, there is the age when people of your own age start dying. And then when newborns are born in the family, its about time for you to depart. Its like a balance. That’s when you start thinking it can be you anytime.

So, as you grow older, people who grew along with you, such as your parents, your uncles, your aunts, your cousins, your spouse, your friends, start deserting you and there starts the panic, the “risk” of you being left alone in this world. All of the above loved ones are either people who were born before you or were born in your generation. And soon, its just a matter of time and turn. Its either your turn or someone else’s. So, there is always this chance of being left all alone in this world.

Hence, to keep the Law of Balances alive and going, you gotta have kids, and they gotta have kids, and you have thus created an environment wherein, even if the loved ones of your generation or of the past generation have passed by, there is another new wave of fresh loved ones, which you have created, who will still remain with you, in all probability till you die. That’s what, in project management verbiage, is called “risk mitigation”.

So, more the kids, more the happy environment, more the likelihood of being with loved and dear ones, more the likelihood of offsetting the sadness that’s caused due to the demise of folks of your generation. Its like padding yourself up with as many layers of generation as possible so that the hands of loneliness and sadness do not touch you till its your time to depart.

At the end of one’s life, its rare to find, beside the deathbed, one’s close friend or one’s relative (who’s born before one). Most likely it will be one’s own child.

We cannot all be Benjamin Buttons, right?