wild roses

Does time leave any space for regrets? As reality flashes forward, its celerity unmatched by your cognition, you find yourself stranded in a loop, as you struggle to correct your actions at a moment in the past but find yourself powerless against the mighty forces that drive you forward. Humans are mere pawns in the hands of greater forces; we exist in a reality where we can only move along with the flow, despite our delusions of control. What role, then, do we play in this ravaged land where peace and serenity find no home?

Oftentimes people speak of the art of fate-shaping, as though it could be practiced by us. Does the fact that we have consciousness necessitate that we have power over what we think and do? Over the years, philosophers and their ilk have conceived many theories, from the extreme rigidity of hard determinism to the rational freedom of libertarianism. We have explored countless possibilities in a bid to unveil the secret behind our presence in this unsightly world, where we are more often than not stripped of the power to be one with the self. Then again, how does one define the self in the first place? If we were brought into this world to be toyed around with, could it be that what we deem a flop is actually our true self? In the philosophy of self, what is it that truly crafts our identity?

It is, at times, laughable how we are so inclined to believe in our selves. It is true that the fact that we are is the only assurance of existence, even as a figment of a greater being's imagination. Is it therefore paramount to know that we are?