Some years ago, I had read in collection of short stories from other languages of the world which were translated into Gujarati. A Russian story by Anton Chekhov titled as THE DEATH OF A GOVERNMENT CLERK is the base of the theme of my Article here. Before I go to my subject, I would like to present here its summary in brief.
The main character of the story is a Government clerk. He goes to watch an opera, sneezes, spatters on the bald head of an officer sitting in front seat accidentally and apologizes feeling the guilt of breach of good manners. The officer takes it easy by saying ‘never mind … never mind’, but the clerk is not satisfied with the response. He, once again, apologizes in the interval. This time the officer is little annoyed. He says, “Oh, that’s enough . . . I’d forgotten it, and you keep on about it!”
Further, seeking advice of his wife, the clerk meets the officer once again in his office and tries to explain that he had not spattered intentionally and requests to excuse him. The officer, stamping his foot forcefully down on the ground and shaking all over his body with anger, shouts loudly “Be off”. The extreme anger of the officer makes the clerk nervous and collapsed. Now, he is shocked too much and in a staggering state reaches home mechanically. He doesn’t even take off his uniform, lies down on the sofa and dies.
The above story moves on humorously, but at the end it becomes tragic. The death of the clerk occurs due to his over-sensitiveness on a minor issue. No doubt, we may find some exaggeration here, but it really highlights one of the weaknesses of human nature where many oversensitive people fail in dealing with many affairs with the people. The delicate sensitiveness pushes the victim towards unnecessary tension and it becomes the cause of depression. As a result, one’s progress comes in the state of stagnation. Alfred Adler, an Austrian Psychiatrist, has observed, “The exaggerated sensitiveness is an expression of the feelings of inferiority”. It is well known to all that any individual suffering from inferiority complex cannot make any progress in his life and in any of its field. Now, let us go some deep into the topic of this Article.
An exaggeration of over-sensitiveness makes our primary emotions somewhat disgusting; that is to say that a good virtue of generosity sometimes becomes painful to others just like the meanness and gratitude also hateful as ingratitude. Thus, such behavior affects the safe and civilized life of a person adversely.
With my open mindedness, I won’t hesitate to quote Dennis Farana, an American film and TV actor; who has frankly said about himself as “I am extremely –extremely sensitive. I can cry at the drop of a hat. I am (like) such a girl when it comes to that. Anything upsets me. I cry all the time. I cry when I am happy too.” Further, he added, “If you are a sensitive person like me, you turn to something that makes you feel good.” I have cut here his own further ‘something’ which is not desirable for a civilized person. One may opt for any better ‘something’ rather than his own which may not be harmful to body, brain and even soul just only to be the self-supporter to overcome over-sensitiveness.
Charles Horton Cooley, an American Sociologist, has said, “A talent somewhat above mediocrity, shrewd and not too sensitive, is more likely to rise in the world than genius.” This quote is self explanatory and also supports to my previous thought that over sensitiveness is the toughest obstacle in the way of uplifting the self.
Lastly, I’ll give you a single tip to know yourselves whether you are oversensitive by nature. It is very simple – when you start to complain about your feelings hurt to everybody who-so-ever comes across you, understand clearly that you are a psychic case of over-sensitiveness. My good Readers, do share your feelings with your nearest friends or spouse to lighten your grief; but to announce your problem publicly is not only foolish but useless also. A very interesting quotation of Lou Holtz will justify what I have said before. It is as “Don’t tell your problems to people; eighty percent don’t care, and other twenty percent are glad you have them.”
-Valibhai Musa
