Some very special experiences in life evoke our most intense and passionate emotions - bliss, joy, happiness, human bond, love and make our journey through life seem so exciting and positive and rewarding.
Ironically, sometimes, the very sources of those same special experiences also evoke some of the unsavory but equally intense and passionate emotions - sadness, hurt feelings, loss of self and connection, resentment and make our journey through life seem so demanding and lacking in purpose.
Learning from experience may boil down to being able to feel both of these sides of intense and passionate emotions. But how we come out - whether happy and wise or sad and bitter may be a choice, but not without prolonged hardship and pain.
At the end of the day, our living, not existence, is defined by both joy and pain, in equal measure.
True and sustainable change is counterintuitive, nonlinear, disorganized, and invisible. History is a mixture of visible, high-profile, short-term events that draw much attention and cause fear, and slow, relentless, long-term changes that go on regardless, often unnoticed but powerful and transformative, nevertheless.
While we panic and pay attention to the horrible terror attacks, which we should or to hate-mongerors and fear-stroking politicians, as we should, slowly unbe...nown to us but surely major positive changes accompanying globalization continue - people and cultures intermingle, positive innovations happen, capital and businesses move, information and ideas spread, transformative solutions of huge import happen. These are the forces that will ultimately shape destiny, not just the cycle of reaction and counter-reaction to hatred.
While we panic and pay attention to the horrible terror attacks, which we should or to hate-mongerors and fear-stroking politicians, as we should, slowly unbe...nown to us but surely major positive changes accompanying globalization continue - people and cultures intermingle, positive innovations happen, capital and businesses move, information and ideas spread, transformative solutions of huge import happen. These are the forces that will ultimately shape destiny, not just the cycle of reaction and counter-reaction to hatred.
Much as we may perceive that the world has become unsafe and violent, and we have reason to think so, as we constantly hear of the terror attacks, the murders, and the hatred that spills around, we need to also ask an important question. Why don't we hear more about the positive stories of human nature, which are bountiful?
Indeed, when we examine the statistics, as Steven Pinker did in his book "Better Angels of our Nature", we reassuringly find that the world is actually a safer, better, less violent place than it ever has been in the vast span of human history.
If only our cognitive senses could be shaped to perceive the invisible, to gain perspective, and to imagine the postively unimaginable, we would hope more and fear less. True, hope may be a delusion, but isn't fear too? Better to live in hope than die in despair, as some fellow said.
Indeed, when we examine the statistics, as Steven Pinker did in his book "Better Angels of our Nature", we reassuringly find that the world is actually a safer, better, less violent place than it ever has been in the vast span of human history.
If only our cognitive senses could be shaped to perceive the invisible, to gain perspective, and to imagine the postively unimaginable, we would hope more and fear less. True, hope may be a delusion, but isn't fear too? Better to live in hope than die in despair, as some fellow said.