One of the absolute pleasures of my stay in London has been watching Usain Bolt clock 9.58 seconds in the 100 metres and 19.19 seconds in the 200 metres at the IAAF Athletics World Championships at Berlin, both new world records by far The incredible performance provided another measure, if one were still needed, of the immense possibilities linked with the human spirit and the barriers that it would always be primed to crossing. Bolt's performance not only catapulted him to a distinctive level of achievement, but also provided a reason for others to keep nurturing hope. The potentialities are inherent in every human mind and body. The question is how many of us have the desire to discover them and use them to good effect. Look at it from another angle. Life is so full of surprises that it keeps springing on you, exerting excruciating and unbearable pain in the process. But, on most occasions, you least expect what you end up with and the sources it originates from. Consequently, there is a fair amount of doubt whether one should make an effort to run clear of the crisis and allow it to simmer down with the passage of time, or espouse a strategy by way of which one can face it head on to find a credible solution. The attending emotional and physical stresses constitute the obvious determinants to the choice of approach and method that one may ultimately adopt. The pain that one encounters at the human level in the face of such situations can be aptly expanded to the national scene. There are so many nagging question marks that are haunting practically every new dawn in the country. There is the talk of widespread corruption which underlines the need for building a national movement for induction of transparency and equitability in all transactions. There is also a need for substantiating all allegations of corruption with credible proof. Just hurling an accusation without either the desire or the gumption to give to the other party a chance to present its version is tantamount to committing a crime that may be of the same magnitude, even graver than the original act a certain person may be accused of. This should not deter us from either making the effort to unearth instances of wrong doing, or the urge to have the perpetrators punished for their transgressions. It should only build in us the resolve to be more judicious even when we may believe that we are primed to nailing the accused. This feature, somehow, is also found wanting in our present-day national character. It reminds one of a typically feudal approach that our society is strangely consumed with - an approach that is disdainfully shorn of reason and logic and is built on the questionable claim to supremacy of those who are lodged in positions of power on the basis of accidents of birth or an embrace with corruption. These positions of power have not been claimed through hard work or dedication to any set of principles. On the converse, these positions have been achieved by sacrificing every shred of the established principles that have traditionally seen the advent of the most glorious human civilisations through centuries. This signifies the culmination of a full cycle of human degradation. Even in personal relations that may adversely impact the future of families, there is a nauseating resonance of this excessively selfish approach that is gruesomely unleashed to secure questionable motives with scant respect accorded to the pain that it may cause to others. Human mind, on most occasions, is a strange reservoir of conflicting emotions that may not be decipherable easily. At times, these emotions may be a direct reflection of some personal act committed at some stage in life that one has not fully reconciled with. It could also be that, in one's eagerness, one may think of this as a routine phenomenon that could occur with every one - a gross mistake that may convince you to arrive at misleading conclusions, thus impacting human lives that are dependant on yours, or linked in some way with yours. So, extreme care and caution should be priority considerations in one's surge to conclude in conformity with one's false emotions and fears rather than giving more credence to the power of logic and the magnificent divergence of human mind and emotion. Those who believe they have been victims of pain should exercise added caution in becoming its perpetrators. Unfortunately, that is not usually the case as one tends to be driven adrift the waves of raw emotions, both personal as well as those that are injected with evil intent. One increasingly discovers instances where the magnitude and intensity of the original alleged transgression pale into insignificance because of this degeneration that is bound to inflict further pain. So, while it may remain difficult, even impossible, for any two human minds to think exactly alike, or any two approaches to be completely similar, it is in this divergence that one may discover the rationale for dialogue and resolution. There is no human emotion that remains consistent: there are ups and there are dips. There is no human relationship that follows a straight path: there are high trajectories and there are low points. It is not through cultivation of conflict, or its perpetuation through intended and unintended words and deeds that one can look forward to an environment of mutual comfort. In fact, it is in the adoption of the contrary approach that one may be able to sustain life for a while longer. We need this hope. But those dependent on us need it more as they are least responsible for our acts. In the same vein, what is more important is not what we inherited or what we were ostensibly subjected to through our earlier times. What is far more important is the treatment that we mete out to those who are dependant on us and who shall mould their lives on what they see in us and of us. Repeating a mistake would not lead to it being redressed. Rectifying it through a positive approach may pave the way forward. Being stuck in the nauseating offerings of a past would be of little consequence in the face of the immense responsibility that rests on each new act of ours that may determine the future of so many who continue to look up to us for the much-needed guidance and support in being able to do what is right and staying away from what may cause further pain. But, most important of all, it is in the ascendancy of the human spirit, in its ability to forgive and forget, and in its surge across the threshold of pain and destiny that one may continue looking for salvation. The writer is an independent political analyst based in Islamabad E-mail: raoofhasan@hotmail.com