After the last superhero flick I watched (because it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere and that is what Hollywood floods the silver screen with, this time of the year!), I realised that I no longer walked out of the cinema hall, pretending to be one of them - it seemed that I had lost my superhero mojo, and this realisation really saddened me.
I began wondering if this is again one of those ageing effects. Now grey hair, slow metabolism, I was getting used to, but this new phenomenon of less and less ridiculous day dreaming, I was not prepared for!
As children and teenagers, we feel so invincible, and with time, we, the same people are filled with insecurity, self doubt and above all - fear. Fear of the unknown, known and even of the non existing.
So, what causes this shift in mindset? And is it really possible to prevent this transition?
Some of the top reasons I could think of are:
1.You now have something to lose. Be it reputation, money, family you love, social acceptance - whatever it is that you have accumulated over the years and the fact that you want to hold on to it.
2. Death becomes reality. As you start to age, certain people who were the pillars of your life begin to weaken and eventually disappear into thin air. The fragility of human life becomes much more obvious and stares right at your face. It is not possible to look the other way and ignore the ugly question, who will be next?
3. Life becomes a race against a ticking clock. There seems to be very little time for anything and you start to reprioritise and push back on certain things. And in some cases constantly readjusting your life goals can make you feel a bit defeated.
For instance, my very first slam book entry as a kid read 'I want to play football on Pluto'. In a few years this was modified to 'I want to live in Antarctica', which later became 'I want to visit Antarctica' and for the last couple of years I have been asking myself do I really want to spend £15000 on this? I am probably not even physically fit to take this trip.
But how indeed do we fool ourselves to not fall for these traps of real life? How can we stop acting our age, and instead let the age be us - whoever that may be? (Or for that matter, how can we cut the drama, and tell ourselves that we are not marching towards an apocalypse!?)
The art of living an involved life and loving every aspect of it, yet retaining a sense of detachment from the same, so that you can always take the necessary risk when you need to, be able to give in, give up and at the same time know when to never give up - seems to me like no ordinary task.
Perhaps this is a task that needs reawakening the inner superhero within me.
I began wondering if this is again one of those ageing effects. Now grey hair, slow metabolism, I was getting used to, but this new phenomenon of less and less ridiculous day dreaming, I was not prepared for!
As children and teenagers, we feel so invincible, and with time, we, the same people are filled with insecurity, self doubt and above all - fear. Fear of the unknown, known and even of the non existing.
So, what causes this shift in mindset? And is it really possible to prevent this transition?
Some of the top reasons I could think of are:
1.You now have something to lose. Be it reputation, money, family you love, social acceptance - whatever it is that you have accumulated over the years and the fact that you want to hold on to it.
2. Death becomes reality. As you start to age, certain people who were the pillars of your life begin to weaken and eventually disappear into thin air. The fragility of human life becomes much more obvious and stares right at your face. It is not possible to look the other way and ignore the ugly question, who will be next?
3. Life becomes a race against a ticking clock. There seems to be very little time for anything and you start to reprioritise and push back on certain things. And in some cases constantly readjusting your life goals can make you feel a bit defeated.
For instance, my very first slam book entry as a kid read 'I want to play football on Pluto'. In a few years this was modified to 'I want to live in Antarctica', which later became 'I want to visit Antarctica' and for the last couple of years I have been asking myself do I really want to spend £15000 on this? I am probably not even physically fit to take this trip.
But how indeed do we fool ourselves to not fall for these traps of real life? How can we stop acting our age, and instead let the age be us - whoever that may be? (Or for that matter, how can we cut the drama, and tell ourselves that we are not marching towards an apocalypse!?)
The art of living an involved life and loving every aspect of it, yet retaining a sense of detachment from the same, so that you can always take the necessary risk when you need to, be able to give in, give up and at the same time know when to never give up - seems to me like no ordinary task.
Perhaps this is a task that needs reawakening the inner superhero within me.
