Balancing
the Incongruity
“The
final wisdom of life requires not the annulment of incongruity, but
the achievement of serenity within and above it.”
Reinhold
Niebuhr
Our
world is filled with paradoxes. The very nation where everyone in the
world wants to study turns out to be the one that can't seem to
adequately educate its own children. The poor are expected to do more
with less and the rich are expected to do less with more. In the land
whose constitution is based on equality, there is very little in the
way of equality. So it has always been in the realm of human
affairs. Everything takes longer than it should. The wheels of justice and understanding grind slowly. Incongruity abounds.
I
don't mean to sound a negative note—only to point out the obvious.
We cannot wait until the world becomes fair for everyone to find
serenity within ourselves or we will never have it. We must find
ways, minute by minute, to both clearly see the inconsistencies in
the world, and to be at peace with ourselves. We must find a balance
between doing all that we can to help others and taking care of
ourselves. Without that balance, we are of little use to anyone.
In
this conjoined world the pendulum swings from one extreme to the
other. Perhaps that is the way it is designed to swing. We must see
the consequences at one extreme before we turn toward sensibility in
the center. Perhaps we humans require extremes to raise our consciousness to
the next level. Niebuhr said, “Nothing worth doing can be achieved
in a lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.” Let us hold
tightly to hope and do what we can in this lifetime.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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