The Monster and your Dreams

“People are afraid to pursue their most important dreams, because they feel that they don’t deserve them, or that they’ll be unable to achieve them. We, their hearts, become fearful just thinking of loved ones who go away forever, or of moments that could have been good but weren’t, or of treasures that might have been found but were forever hidden in the sands. Because, when these things happen, we suffer terribly…

Everyone on earth has a treasure that awaits him. We… seldom say much about those treasures, because people no longer want to go in search of them. Later, we simply let life proceed, in its own direction, toward its own fate. But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them- the path to their Personal Legends, and to happiness. Most people see the world as a threatening place, and, because they do, the world turns out, indeed, to be a threatening place.”

- Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist.

–

The man looked at his ageing mother intently. She is old.

Many years ago, his mum told him: “Son, you must study hard. I hope that you can go to university and get a degree. Then you can get a good job, earn lots of money, and then support your wife and kids.”

He never questioned her. After all, he was told since young to listen to the elders and that they are always right. “We should respect them,” he thought.

So, he went on to study hard, got into good schools, sufferred minor setbacks here and there, but still managed to get a degree at the end. He graduated at 25.

–

Has anyone heard of the economic monster? It is a sucker. It really sucks. Its main diet includes citizens who cannot think for themselves, most of the time conforming to societal ideals, never questions much about things around them – unfairness, injustice, greviances. Its victims are most capable of doing an action commonly known as “suck thumb” and their level of endurance can easily pwn marathon runners.

The economic monster also steals. It steals dreams from people. Once you’re being sucked into the monster, you will not be able to free yourself until the age of 70. That’s when the economic monster lets you go. But…it’s only on the condition that you have the trump card called the retirement income. If not, you’d just be sucked back into it. It is no surprise that the monster even has government backing.

–

The man is troubled.

His mum has never told him about the economic monster. Now, he’s drowning in the whirlpool after being swallowed by it and he’s trying to frantically swim out to catch his breath. Office politics is drowning him. The ideals of his bosses, the burden of his bills and his meager paycheck he could not put up strong resistance. He tries his very best to struggle out of the whirlpool. But after a while, he gives up. When he graduated, everybody asked him: “What job are you looking for?” Nobody had ever asked: “What are you looking for in a job?” The whirlpool has now become a poo pool, and he doesn’t know how to get out of it. “I am becoming dumber by the day,” he thought.

–

He arrived home at 10 pm. That night, the monster had ordered him to stay inside it longer as it wanted him to stay longer. “It made no sense?” he thought.

He was tired and drained. The next day, he’d have to report back to the monster. He looked at his ailing mother. “How I wish I can be with her right now,” he thought. And that was all he thought about that day. He went to bed.

–

Today, his soul left his body. He looked at his drained body and sighed.

He is finally free from the economic monster.

“I have achieved nothing. I have done nothing for this world. I have wasted all the resources invested on me – the water, the food, the fuel – that could have been put to better use. Maybe save a hungry kid or something. And…I thought I wanted to have kids. But why would I bring them here to be gobbled up by the economic monster? I know they would be because the monster is ruthless. Dreams I had since young, they vanished mysteriously.

“Hmm, what a funny world,” he thought.