Essay: Safety Nets and Stars

Subramaniam Cheemalapati shares a personal essay on observing life closely and noticing how others view it.

I have noticed over the years that there are at least two kinds of carefree people. From a distance, they can look alike.

The first kind believes, quietly and without much drama, that things will work out. Money will come if you stay positive and do good. Health will hold if you live decently. The universe is not hostile. It may not be actively friendly, either, though it certainly isn’t keeping score against you. This reflects my grandfather’s carefree nature. He left a royal court to become a farmer and never seemed troubled by either choice. For people like him, even thinking about a safety net is almost beside the point. They are not reckless. The net is not separate from them; it is woven from the same fabric as their faith. They are already inside it.

The second kind of carefree person is different. I have come to recognize them more as I have gotten older. These are individuals who do whatever they want, whenever they want, largely without considering how it lands on those around them. They are usually not malicious. They are simply unbothered. They remain untroubled by consequences because those consequences never seem to be theirs to bear. Someone else absorbs them. Someone else adjusts.