What we are seeking so frantically elsewhere may turn out to be the horse we have been riding all along.
Harvey Cox
Human beings are really queer creatures. They are always consumed by this crazy obsession about how their lives are not as good as they would have liked them to be; they are never satisfied with what they have, no matter how much they have or get of it. They are always absorbed in the quest for the unknown, so much so that they do not stop or care to appreciate what they already have. In fact, more often than not, we already have the treasures that we set out to conquer. However, it is usually too late by the time this dawns on us. And all we are left with is despair and regret. It goes without saying that this is one of the biggest human ironies.
That said, it does not always have to turn out this way. There is nothing wrong about looking for a better life. However, unless completely necessary, it should not be at the cost of whatever precious little we already have. We also need to ask ourselves the question if our pursuit is really worth the effort. If so, are we ready to lose everything we have if things do not go our way? Reflecting upon these fundamental questions at the very start can save us a lot of trouble going forward.
However, the biggest question we need to ask ourselves is if we already have what we are looking for. After all, we humans are not alien to the art of looking for the glasses that we are already wearing, are we? A quote by American theologian, Harvey Gallagher Cox Jr., is particularly noteworthy in this regard: “What we are seeking so frantically elsewhere may turn out to be the horse we have been riding all along.”