Transitivity

After India’s disastrous exit from the World Cup there has been talks about boycotting every product endorsed by cricketers. This idea got me thinking about transitivity. Mathematical transitivity is defined as aRb, bRc implies aRc. So why should I apply the same relation to my life ? I mean if I like to drink Pepsi (ok, so things are easier for me as I don’t drink Pepsi…I am a coke drinker ..) why should I refrain from doing so just because Indian cricket team lost the chance to win the World Cup (yet again!!) ? I can completely understand if some people cannot understand how transitivity applies here. You have to stretch your imagination a lot to get what I mean.
Ok, I will try to make it a little simpler. I have had a lot of good and bad experiences in my life, met a lot of nice people and “not so nice” people too. Have shared good times and bad times with many friends. And ofcourse I associate a lot of things with memories of my good and bad times. For instance a certain book, a certain song, a restaurant, a cup of espresso, a particular movie, a colour, a certain city, a name and a thousand other small things can trigger a deluge of memories. If all this is associated with good memories than I guess I am just plain lucky. But what happens when they are associated with memories I would rather forget. Memories which cause immense pain. I can avoid a few things to get rid of that pain but how can I ensure that I avoid EVERYTHING that is associated with some unpleasant memory. Practically everyday of my life I come across something which can hurt me, so how do I deal with it ? I finally came up with a solution. It’s not the best but at least it is effective though it’s pretty slow at showing results. I just try and dissociate the object from the memory. Not let them get so jumbled that 1 means the other. Just treat an object as a single entity without any strings attached to any event or any memory. I enjoy a good song, a good book, a good movie, a great cup of coffee for what it is not because it reminds me of an intelligent conversation I had with a friend over a cup of coffee when we argued about the meaning of the lyrics of the song or the philosophy of the book.
Many would disagree with me saying that this is not a good way of treating the cricketers or the brands they endorse. After all the whole idea of boycotting is a about punishing the cricketers. But will my boycotting products make any difference to the sorry state of affairs of the Indian Cricket team or even to an individual cricketer or his income from the brands ? Every big brand which has a cricketer endorsing their product knows that public memory is short. If today we are criticizing the players for the loss it will take us but just 1 win to restart our adulation for them. Then we will all go back to hero-worshipping the players, drinking Pepsi, buying Reebok apparels, MRF tyres and all other products they endorse. I choose not to wait that long, after all I have been eyeing that Reebok T-Shirt in the showroom for quite some time now and I don’t want to wait any longer.