Holding On
by Akshat Rathi
It’s probably human nature to hold on to things. The familiarity of things is better than the fear of the unknown. The security of having is better than risk of losing. We hold on to people, to objects, to arguments, to beliefs, to memories… to possibly everything that can be held on to.
Somehow, when it comes to holding on to things our rationality can wait. We understand others who do it even if it is clearly not doing them any good. We ourselves hold on because we can’t seem to find any other way out.
I took this picture on a particularly windy day by the Isis river in Oxford. Surely, someone had tied this piece of plastic around the pole but because it seemed to serve no purpose, I couldn’t help but imagine the piece of plastic wanting to hold on to the pole. And funnily enough, the pole was there because it was holding on to a boat. The boat was probably there because the owners were holding on to the wreck. And the owners were probably there because their respective parents held on to them… you get the point.
We hold on and we let others hold on because the pain of letting go seems far worse…
