Road Less Traveled

I had a rare privilege of visiting my cousin and her family in Switzerland. The image of Switzerland from outside—of purity, punctuality, and precision—is entirely different in reality when you are inside its borders. The reality is more complex than the image. It’s not a country where you expect instant bonding and bear hugs.

The Swiss way of life partly mirrored mine. I overly focused on my livelihood, and not on the living. Swiss value their work, considering it almost as their God. Many attribute children as expense and are unwilling to trade-off freedom, time and leisure over parenthood. Psychologists and psychiatrists abound. The absence of support group can make life bleak and black for those with bottled-up emotions.

Swiss divorce rate is rapidly increasing. Maybe (just maybe!) there would be lesser couples who would go into divorce if love is greater than the need for the other. After all, commitment is an action word! Love is a verb.

As I went on touring sites, I saw many Europeans clad in dignified corporate outfits but with empty souls. There were plenty of dead people pretending to get a life through their leisure and hobbies. It was a scary sight.

I used to dilly-dally about marriage. But the trip to Switzerland made me realize I need a life-partner. Approaching golden years without having a companion whom I can have an intelligent discussion might be my purgatory. Friends come and go. Family move and relocate. Careers end. I fret the day living alone when I’m old and gray.

For years I saw only clouds of doubts and fears. But now, I look at love from both sides: from win and lose, from give and take, and from up and down. Peculiarly late, yet this realization is victory in itself!