Pentagram Priorities!

Pentagram: A five pointed star with five straight strokes, easiest made by drawing a pentagon and joining the inside angles with lines.

There is great balance and mathematical perfection to be found in pentagrams. Of course there is a lot of legend attached to this figure from ancient Christianity to Satan and everything in between.

For me, my life is like a pentagram. Five different and equally strong priorities, that are all independent and yet are connected to each other; albeit in some cases the connections aren’t direct, the lines have to intersect and take a few twists and turns. Eventually they all add up.

In no particular order, these priorities for me are work, family, spouse, friends and health. If there is a balance between all these, then there is harmony. The day one of them starts pulling a heavier load, demanding more attention, that day the equilibrium gets distorted and the star loses shape.

Maintaining this balance is the most challenging feat anyone could ever achieve. There are so many hidden elements to take care of. Each tip of this mystical five sided figure is an existence on its own. By giving it a label, you don’t stop it from being made up of millions of little aspects. And of course like a child each one of these aspects demands attention.

Can anyone tell which one is more important than another? I don’t think so. At a stretch ‘health’ is the only one who can claim that title, but it’s not a convincing argument. That doesn’t stop all of them from wanting to be ‘numero uno’. Short of cloning oneself and designating a priority per clone, I don’t see this being feasible.

How do you tell one of your priorities, that they are threatening the whole unit? Face it! You can’t! You just have to tug them all back into place bit by bit. And when all else fails, take a hard stand, put your foot down, use all the other clichés in the world and crawl under your blanket for some healthy introspection.

At the end of the day you need to decide what defines your ‘sense of self’. And No, this doesn’t mean you have to know what you want always. It just means what it says! Then step back, take a deep breath and start all over again.

Easier said than done, you say? Maybe… Maybe not…