THE HARMONY OF STRIVING AND COMPROMISE

The Harmony of Striving and Compromise

Think of how a river embodies these two natures.

It compromises with the geographical terrain, eroding and smoothing the way as it goes while relentlessly flowing forward, striving to achieve its ultimate purpose of uniting with the ocean. These two natures are always simultaneously in balance.

The river prioritizes its effort: Gushing on to the Ocean is its first goal, removing or getting around the rock is its second. While achieving its second objective it never loses sight of its first objective.

This principle runs throughout every aspect of our lives.

In our marital lives, the first objective is to strive for sustaining and creating a loving and harmonious environment for our family. The secondary  objective is not to lose our individuality. In order to strive for our first objective, we often compromise our individual differences.

The same situation can occur in a business negotiation. The primary objective might be to create a cooperative partnership to enhance our company’s global market, while the secondary objective is to fight for the best deal possible. In order to achieve the big picture a negotiator needs to balance between making the deal and the necessity to compromise. For without compromise there is no deal. 

-Chin-Ning Chu, Discover the Hidden Power of Giving In

MEETING AN OLD BUDDY

MEETING AN OLD BUDDY

Yesterday I met up with an old high school buddy now a Math Professor at the University of the Philippines.

He often spends summer in our hometown and attends  the school reunion,  without fail, every year. I asked if we could talk again, as we often do, whenever he’s home.

He was in casuals,  baseball cap, with bulky camera dangling from the neck. He looked like a local tourist or a rugged reporter . He didn’t look like the typical academic, which he is, and a brilliant one.

We  talked about many  things, classmates, family, politics,  and about life. We reminisce  the days of our youth, of the transitions we went through in the stages of life.

He talked sadly of friends and schoolmates who had returned to the ground, and the unpredictability of events in one’s life. With his mathematical mind it was as if he wanted to draw up an equation  to divine the uncertainties. 

This man is a deep,  prodigious thinker, and yet there is the artistic side  to  him. I glanced at the camera slung around his neck. He said he is interested in birds and different species of native plants and flowers.  He said he recently climbed a mountain somewhere in Luzon seeking out rare species,  and documenting his finds.

I think his passion for  nature is what keeps him in balance. I suppose for him teaching higher math is exacting to the heart, much too clinical, even impersonal, because it requires no less than  utter perfection.  

Alas, all of man’s striving  falls short of perfection.   

And this reminds of me what St. Paul declared to the Christians in Rome. He said we all come short of God’s glory. (Romans 3:23). 

This makes us human after all.