The Lotus Trap

On a lazy Sunday morning you'd find me watching random TV. This time, Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief was on, Percy Jackson and his two friends are on this elaborate quest of saving the World by slaying one evil monster after the other. Midway during their adventurous journey, they wind up inside a colorful Casino in Vegas called 'The Lotus'. A few good looking cocktail waitresses offer them a few cookies that look like flowers. Really, really delicious cookies. On their first bite, they fall in love with these flower looking trinkets, and slowly - after every bite, they start falling in love with the Casino, the lights, the music.. forgetting why they're even there. They try telling themselves they can stay there longer, maybe just a few hours more, or maybe a day..? Beautiful lights, colors, music, food.. What more could they want? Everything made perfect sense, until that point when Percy Jackson realizes that the cookies that are so desirable, yet so easily available- are drugged, putting him and his friends in a state of a trance. He remembers his quest and wakes out of this alluring Lotus trap. He gathers all his will power to resist the temptation of staying there any longer, refuses any more cookies from those beautiful waitresses and escapes just in time to continue his quest that he originally set out for. Five days, that's how long they were stuck there. When they first walked in, so innocently agreed to staying at the Lotus for only a few hours..  and who would've thought that this harmless little place would consume them for that long. This story also reminded me of that little bit in Life of Pi where Pi discovers this little haven of an island where he found endless supply of food and clean water. But somehow, he finds himself to realize that he will only be trapped there forever, and eventually leaves the Island with Richard Parker, the Tiger.

That got me thinking about where I am right now. In my home, within the comfort of my couch, watching TV, surfing facebook and with a cup of hot tea by my side.. Am I also caught up in this Lotus trap? A place where everything seems perfect, yet standstill. Looking around, am I slowly being fed to this pretty world that I choose to call home? Is there some greater quest out there that is beckoning? Even if there is, should I even care? Knowing that I'm not alone in this Lotus Trap, and in the company of people I love being with, is comforting. But as much as I keep convincing myself that this is home, I'll also have to accept that there's nowhere going from here.

So why did Pi even leave that island? What if Percy Jackson had never snapped out of the trance? So what if him and his friends never left that place? I struggle to fathom why do people sometimes do what they do, only for a greater cause. We are no superheroes, and its up to us how we live our life. Why is it that most stories and movies which end happily always relate to the hero's quest being completed. You'd never see an ending where Percy Jackson would decide with his friends "F*** this quest, let's all stay here and be happy for ever!" What if Pi also decided to stay on the Island with Richard Parker, and gotten fat and old there. That wouldn't have been a solid movie ending for sure. It's all these movies that make everything sound like there's a greater cause out there that we must all go find and conquer.

Where do you stand in all this with your thoughts? Are you that person who lives everyday for a greater cause? Or do you even believe that there exists one?

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