The Hold

I have spent nearly a decade asking a few simple questions. Why do people like Mahatma Gandhi, Desmond Tutu, and the Dalai Lama wear childlike smiles, unlike most adults in our daily lives, who wear stress and tension on their faces? Didn’t they go through much harder times than most of us? Why do some people respond to setbacks with more elegance than others? Why do some people stand still in front of obstacles or back off when others find ways to crack those obstacles? Haven’t we all read the same books and heard the same advice? Yet, when the moment arrives, why does most such advice disappear? When something we don’t like happens, self-saboteurs like blame, victimhood, judgment, and helplessness kick in. Where do those come from? What needs to change? While I decorate my public profile with things I have done, degrees accumulated, and accomplishments, what about all the situations where I got stuck with routine things or had setbacks — like when I didn’t get the role I wanted,…