Once upon a time there was a small kid. She wanted to big things in life. Some of them included walking on a beach, flying in a plane, celebrate birthday with friends, eat pastries without gaining weight and there were some more simple acts that she loved imagining about to do in life. Then one day a devil came and cursed her. She gave up her hopes and her desires were replaced with fear. She now wants to do a lot of things but she waits for that devil to go away. She is waiting while the devil says to her with a smile – “Caring too much, you silly girl!”
The devil is social confirmation aka seeking validation from society. The girl is a metaphor for human beings who give up on themselves just to please others for acceptance only to feel shitty later. And acceptance doesn’t even come either.
I don’t give a fuck about a lot of things. Some of them include stuff I don’t even wanna talk about. But the thing about giving a fuck is more important than that. The following are the things that matter to me and I do give a fuck about them. Period.
My happiness – and it comes from doing what I love and includes poetry, reading books, exercising, travelling, storytelling, listening to podcasts and more. If I don’t do at least one of the things that make me happy, I feel bad and a day gets wasted. Happiness is a selfish virtue to some extent, but to give your best to your near and dear ones by being happy is not a selfish motivation. Not to me at least.
Their happiness – and it comes from doing things that add value to the lives of people I care for and includes cooking and eating together, listening to their stories, long walks, group yoga, exchanging books, sharing ideas and more. This makes me shed off my karmic debt that I accumulate by being in company of amazing folks.
It is very hard to not give a fuck about anything because that is not what human beings do. We are social and emotional beings and we want to connect – with ourselves as well as with others. Not caring about things makes you involved in things that really do matter to you and makes space for progress at the cost of oneself and not seek approval from anybody else. And if you ask me what is name of Angelina Jolie’s son or who is the prime minister of Tunisia, I really don’t give a fuck.
Arpit Chhikara 