The Sleeping Giants
SLEEPING GIANTS
For anyone familiar with the song 'Sleeping Giant' by one of gospel's greatest rock band Petra, there can be no suspense to the theme of the article. In a time where the youths are firmly clamped by technology, social media, fashion, entertainment, lifestyles of the rich and famous etc., it is hard not to get lost in the superficial milieu and thereby lose our purpose to the idea of adapting to the parade.
While there is a rampant advancement in the field of science and technology, there is also an underlying epidemic of individuals disintegrating into an addiction of their created mass products, thereby abating its relevance and promptly assuming a dependent wheelchair bound toddler. Lately, the understanding of one's character is replaced by the knowledge about one's favourite celebrity and the gadgets have become the real (imaginary) friend. The constantly changing trends never cease to have their claws out to demoralize the basics. Teenage is the new twenties while middle age is a vapid terminal for a prolonged stay in its thirties. Sensationalism takes precedence over the truth and the romance of someone's life holds more attraction over the killings and famines and diseases of the world.
In an age where there is a wide framework for any expression, culture, lifestyles or eccentricity, the door cannot be wider for the misfits, the weirdoes, the artists or the dreamers. At the same time, one cannot deny that there is a parallel starvation of these three A's in the modern world - Acceptance, Appreciation and Attention. Deprived of these, the youth either takes comfort in an invisible cove of seclusion or a visible cove of chaos. The middle ground between the two extremes is rare and it is easier to be enticed by either side, than to stand with the few.
Each of us has different a destiny to fulfill. But what can really stir us from the long snooze of dusk is our sense of entitlement for the life that we are created for. No matter how much we are fed with discouragement, hurt or broken promises, no one can take away our birth right to become that giant, where billions of atoms perfectly synchronize its motions to help us achieve that 'wonder-soul' moment. Although we do not have the luxury to choose our existence, colour, race, sex or background, we have a greater privilege to be the salt of the world rather than asking 'Why am I not the sugar?'
Each of us carries a huge responsibility of representing ourselves to the world and none of us are spared from the contribution, whether we choose to be a feckless knob, a constructive donor or a destructive force. We are all sleeping giants, oblivious, not only to the vistas of responsibilities that we can shoulder, but also of our own portrait of the awakened giant. What remains is our own approval of the impaired mortal that we are, because we are our own biggest audience and no amount of adulation or adoration can thaw away the grime of insecurities that obscure our own reflection in the mirror.
As the song goes "Each time we sleep through an inch, we're losing a mile", there is no greater need than now to rouse ourselves and come out of this stupor, to take hold of the God gifted life for. We should not get swallowed up by the fad, but to be purged of our flaws in the whim.
Submitted by Rajeshwari Agrawal
