The Understated Companionship

As cheeky as the title of this rather unusual piece sounds, the essence of this is one of the most real things known to me. There are two distinct ways of understanding the most intricate things about life, one when the realization dawns upon you, the other where it grows upon you. The only difference being the time and the number of experiences it takes us to reach that understanding.

Romance is at times overrated, companionship is grossly underrated, and love more often than not is misunderstood.

Much credit to the cinema we consume and the ideas which slowly creep into our lives until they become fundamental to us, our perception of human relationships is shallow and limiting. No wonder the whole world has a tough time dealing with it.

Now combine that persisting shallowness with a restrictive culture like ours, you get an entire generation of people fidgeting with morals, needs, and wants.

Companionship, unless you are Sherlock Holmes is a surviving mechanism for you. Even Holmes cherished it in Watson, howsoever reluctantly. We have the highest regard in our lives for romantic relationships and reassuring friendships, needless to mention, people are blinded by the search for “The one” more than they are for heaven. Either of these explorations is fundamentally flawed, and if this is your way of adding value and purpose in life, it’s not going to end well.

Why this understanding holds more relevance in recent times? It’s because frequent relocation and acquaintance are no longer a luxury or choice. Even the most reluctant person cannot vegetate in one corner of the world, owing to his career, ambition, or to just sustain life. People live thousands of miles away from the family who brought them up, from the ‘forever’ friends they went to school with, the places which are familiar and comforting to their soul. Technology can help you to contact them at any given point in time, but they can’t do what a person physically present a hundred meters from you can or rather do on a regular basis but you are too naive to realize.

We’ll all be like a fish taken out of the water if we are left all by ourselves, or we’ll turn out to be a psychopath, and chances of occurrence of the latter are quite high. So, while we are extraordinarily good at failing to appreciate every small thing that helps us survive on a daily basis, companionship should not be one of them.

I understand that we were raised in a world that taught us to limit in the name of protecting ourselves which consequently induced paranoia towards almost everyone we come across. Not everyone you meet is going to be your best friend, life partner, or babysitter. You need to find a balance. I’m amazed by how keeping low expectations are used in a negative connotation almost everywhere and like a thought process born out of hurt and betrayal. It should rather come from our recognition of individual relationships and acknowledgment of the value it adds to our lives.