When I was in Taman Negara, Malaysia, which is apparently the oldest rainforest in the world, I saw and "interacted" with a lot of bugs and such in the place where we were staying. We were pretty much on the touristy part of the jungle where they had a lot of restaurants and stores and such. But it was in the jungle nonetheless.. and there were a lot of these very loud bugs called Cicada. They only come out at night and they make a helluva lot of noise. They are flying creatures and there were a LOT of them. I naturally got freaked out and since we were staying there for 3 nights, I was pretty much counting down the nights. As soon as the sun goes down, you here these disgusting creatures flying around tube lights and things. During the last day, after avoiding and dreading them for 3 days, a Cicada came and sat on my shoulder. I didn't notice.. After a while, for some reason I put my hand near my chest and accidentally touched it. It started making that loud noise and flying around my face.. I tried to get rid of it and wound up falling over my chair, down a platform of a couple of inches. Fortunately, no injuries occurred and the event is now nothing more than an extremely hilarious memory. It was great, now that I think about it.
It was pretty ironic that I was afraid of such small creatures because just a day before, we went to an insect museum and I held a poisonous scorpion about 10 inches! Off course, I didn't know it was poisonous and the insect handler wanted a volunteer to hold the thing. I held it.. It didn't do much, except tickle me as it has these very pointy legs (as you may know). The dude tells me it was poisonous only after I give it back.. It was a freaky experience nonetheless..
Anyway, I think a lot of our fear/disgust comes from within. All of my friends had no problem with the Cicada and they could walk right through it. They were more freaked out about the scorpion than I was, and this was only because I knew nothing would happen (somehow).. and decided to try it. An incident which inspired me to write this was in Teman Negara, when I went to take a shower. I saw this HUGE butterfly.. the biggest I've ever seen in my life in the shower. I got freaked out and came out running. I tried to make it go away by waving at it and trying to hit it. It didn't work, so I ran out of the shower! My friends also saw the butterfly and they wouldn't go into the shower. After a few minutes, I make my way back to the butterfly and I see this older Caucasian man with his $2000 camera trying to take a picture of it. He loved that he was fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of such a creature! He couldn't resist from telling me how beautiful it was and how fortunate we are to witness such a thing. Then I started thinking how freaked out I was due to this "magnificent" creature. I was still wondering what makes this so beautiful, and was still slightly freaked out but I couldn't help but wonder what must be going on in this man's mind. There was no trace of disgust or fear for this creature, only appreciation and a feeling of satisfaction. How could the same object that is subject to the exact same conditions create two opposite emotions in us? Clearly, it is US who are different and we feel what we are.
I am trying very hard not to make the inference that "If we want to be happy, we will be happy no matter what" because although this may seem true, to what degree can you control your feelings? I think it also depends on the type of person you have and the type of outlook you have towards things around you. This outlook, while can be influenced by free will, it is largely out of our control and influenced by our upbringing, status in society, the currently structure of society and the circumstances at that particular instance in time. Nonetheless, I suppose we can try to have a positive outlook in life always and this will have a positive effect on our feelings. The only variable is the degree of effect.
I saw the move La Vita a bella (Life is Beautiful), which is a movie about a father who is forced to live in a concentration camp with his son and he pretends that all is well to keep his son happy. Till the end of his life, the son thinks that the concentration camp is some sort of competition, which they are here to win. No matter what the circumstance or condition, the father always saw things with a different perspective and he passed this on to his son. Clearly, the Jewish concentration camps during WWII was the worst thing that anyone could go through in the history of the world. Yet, the father was able to shield his son from it all and make it seem like a fun contest... Great movie.. a must see!
Anyway, the moral of the story is that we are not affected by the external circumstances as much as we think we are. Most of it depends on the perspective within, which can be controlled to a certain degree. Theoretically, one may even gain enough perspective to go through the worst times of their life with a smile on their face and a song in their heart.. It is only a matter of controlling the direction of the mind.
