An Indian parable: A passerby asks the Master, “What were you doing before your enlightenment?” “I was carrying water, chopping wood,” replied the Master. “And after your enlightenment?” asks he with curiosity. “Well, what shall I do? Carry water, chop wood.” “So what’s the difference?” asked the inquirer in doubt. “The difference actually is very big, – says the Master, – “Before I was doing it dictated by my Teacher, in fear of him, and now I am doing it because I love my Teacher, I have pity on the old man and I do not want him to be left without heat and water.”
The moral, I think, is clear. It is important not only what you are doing, but what for, what purpose, and what mission, or as it is now accepted to say, under what project. One of American psychologists illustrates another example. Imagine that you’re sitting at a formal academic event, you’re bored, consider your university hat and garment funny. And all of a sudden, you start realizing that you are not alone to be a particle of this big and important affair, you’re a chain link that has commenced from Socrates, is continued with you and is aimed at the future. And from the moment onwards, the hat and the garment would not seem you absurd anymore.
So, do you feel like you’re “a part of a project” or not? In the second case, the life, I think, becomes uninteresting and boring, even in the event if a sack of gold is falling onto your head at every 10 minutes. “Projects” may be different: they might be all-human, spiritual, cultural (here, we, Armenians, have our word to say). They might be economic. Small and not so powerful countries in Europe are a particle of the work division, let’s say, they are manufacturing seats for the “Mercedes”, or chips for mobile phones. In this regard, we, the South Caucasus countries, are not part of anything. Exporting petroleum, molybdenum and labor “is not counted,” we do not invest our contribution in the creation of something, we are just selling our available wealth.
Projects can be private (as in the case of aforementioned Master) or corporate. I, for example, participate in my supervised “Aravot Daily” project with great pleasure, pride and enthusiasm, as well as in a number of other projects, greatly enjoying all of them. I suppose each of us should feel to be a part of the “Armenian state” project. Many people do not feel it reasoning that the government authorities are bad. Well, when they become better, then probably they would “feel” it.
The Centennial of the Genocide is a national, in other words, all Armenians project, within which it is desirable to be out of internal squabbles. As they say, it is not the time at all.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
