The suitability of an influence
I was on my phone when I stumbled upon a stack of bricks. Fortunately, my phone screen was safe, and I was spared of injury. However, the incident left a dent in my head. Here are some images of the scene:
Yes, I saw this art installation while scrolling on my phone. There was no accident, and no person or animal was harmed. But it got me thinking.
We are constantly influenced by all sorts of things. Some of these do not warrant conscious attention or memory. And yet, they remain. There is a popular notion that knowledge is power, and perhaps it is. But to consider books the sole source of knowledge would be incorrect. I suspect the bookworms I offended would beg to differ. I take that risk and beg to diverge into films. Specifically, one film that impacted me profoundly — Amélie.
Amélie is a French film that lives up to the stereotypes I held of the French people. Epicurean, easy-going, and lovers of a grammatically confusing language. Amélie, a young introverted waitress, is the protagonist. And the film unrolls her near-delinquent antics and her quest to make people happy. Having aced French in school, I can confidently tell you one thing. Thank God for English subtitles.
In the film, worthless bits of paper were clues to a mystery. Telling two people that each loves the other was the shortest way to spark romance. Amélie is a cinematic experience with bits of sensual and humorous elements. Delving deeper into the film would probably count as a spoiler. But I must say, the film taught me the difference between seeing and looking.
You can see the world but you have to look for things you want. I believe observation is somewhere between the two — semi-conscious wiring to be aware of one’s surroundings. And being observant is not as easy.
I recall my experience working at an ad agency. I would come up with ideas after what I considered a lot of creative fatigue. I would bask in the glory of my novel thoughts. But it would be squashed into dust with just one small observation from my creative director. “The Earth is round; we can’t call it flat. This is a globe factory!” (Or something on those lines) And suddenly, I would feel stupid. Some things turn evident only after being pointed out. As Gabriel García Márquez eloquently put it- Wisdom comes to us when it can no longer do any good.
Things never seem obvious at first. It may not even be obvious the second or 134th time either. Can you force something to reveal itself like those scratch cards? I wonder if waking up at 4 am and drinking lemon green tea is a solution for this too. I foray into a story that might help resolve this very dilemma.
A lioness was about to attack a herd of sheep. Amidst that, she gave birth to a lion cub and died. The sheep ended up adopting the cub and raised it as one of them. The cub grew up braying like the other sheep, eating grass and doing things which one does with a sheepish upbringing. Several months later, a lion is about to attack the same herd of sheep. He is shocked on seeing a cub behaving like his sheep company. The lion kidnaps the cub and takes him to the river. The cub is taken aback by the resemblance they share. The cub was not a sheep. He was always a lion all this while. It was obvious now. He was made aware of it.
Apparently, knowing is not a default.
Meg Jay in her book the Defining decade speaks about one of my favourite concepts — Identity Capital. She explains how your identity is the corpus of your experiences, acquired over the years, through the exposures you gained. A fair share of it is decided by your cultural upbringing. But your identity capital is also the evidence of the influences you let into your life. And that perhaps is a non-oversimplified approximation of cliched lines like you are what you eat, or the more Instagram-friendly- you are the sum total of your friend circle.
Influence, is a possibly a default.
Brick by brick, influence builds a staircase. And from that elevated staircase, you can see the world. It’s a whole different view. It is your view, made by you!
