Of Goals & fantasy worlds

We all love fantasy, at least to a certain extent. Movies, books, music, all are a certain way to escape the dreariness that engulfs our life sometimes. They're great stress busters too. I recently read about a study of will power, on kids who were left in a room with no supervision with cookies, and told they'd get 2 if they waited till the supervisor came back. Interestingly, the ones that held out, distracted themselves, or simply kept reminding themselves of what all wrong could happen if they gave in.

Children are good subjects, as they're not muddled by accessory concerns that tend to clog the adult mind. The best part about the study, I found, was the power of distraction. Distraction isn't always a bad thing, even studies of children with attention deficit disorder have revealed that the constant fidgeting actually helps the children concentrate, even though it may not seem that way to you. I, myself, have never studied without a distraction like TV or music since the past so many years. So what does this have to do with the title, you may ask. Well, we all love our fantasy worlds. Everyone has one, also known as their "happy place", and by numerous other synonyms. Fantasy worlds are our way of escape, simply moving into another dimension where you aren't worried about anything, nothing can happen to you, and you can passively enjoy the interesting twists of another's life. We need that quite simply like children need it to avoid cookies. Except, we're not trying to distract ourselves from anything good, well, mostly not, but something bad. If you've seen Coupling, you probably know about the examples of something good too. Everyone in life has certain goals, expressed in a multitude of ways, be it wanting to be an astronaut or a doctor as a kid, your wonderful "where do you see yourself in 5 years" type crappy questions, or simply a desire to achieve something. Life has a way of kicking you in all the wrong places, atleast sometimes. You have your good moments, you have your bad ones. The thing is, all these tend to remain with you, and your wonderous brain keeps dishing them out to you when you least expect. Fantasy worlds let us escape that. In this world, you can be the lord and master, people at your beck and call, where you are adored and fawned over etc. etc. To some, this escape is through books, to some like me, through movies, to others, through other forms of art. What I like about movies is the means to experience something you would probably never experience in your own life, in a way that's safe and side-effect free (see my previous post). You get transported into worlds beyond imagination, or atleast beyond anything we'll see. That is one of the big reasons I like graphics, because it gives you the power to bring things and worlds to life, that are otherwise lost, or were never there to begin with.

For all it's wonders, fantasies are simply like any other addiction. Like booze, cigarettes and the like, they offer an easy quickfix, and consistent usage eventually tends to start affecting your life. You are but one person, and can only live fully in one world. You can extend bits of yourself into other worlds, but the demands of each can make you withdraw from some to cut your losses. That's one of the reasons I don't like games like The Sims, or Second Life. The first life you have, and the people in it have the biggest priority from you, in my opinion. The draw of these other worlds is nice, to escape everything. To some it may seem like the only option, or maybe the better option. I myself am the social hara-kiri expert :) . Movies are my guilty measure, I have probably watched more movies than the average person, even crap most people would kill themselves halfway through. And I somehow never get bored. Ever since I watched a Hindi movie called "Junoon"(A werewolf or rather were-tiger movie), at the tender age of 4, which scared me shitless, I've been able to watch any movie with aplomb and ease. I have mine, and others have theirs. I guess the key to it all is moderation, till I become that guy who does everything sitting on a couch, I'm ok. As they say, even a little bit of poison is good for you.