Today's
quotation:
People
talk about the middle of the road as though it were
unacceptable. Actually, all human problems, excepting morals, come into the
gray areas. Things are not all black and white. There have to be
compromises. The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight
D. Eisenhower
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Today's
Meditation:
We
live in cultures that don't value compromise--in fact,
many people in the public eye seem to view compromise as a
dirty word these days. Politicians refuse to
compromise with members of other parties, performers and
athletes refuse to compromise on their salaries (no matter
how obscenely high they may be), and policy-makers want
their policies to be adopted exactly as they are, often
without the input of anyone else.
But
compromise makes our lives richer by allowing us to see
more clearly how other people see life. If I keep in
mind that someone else has a different perspective on a
particular subject--and that their perspective is just as
valid as mine--I can open up my mind to see a topic in
another way. I don't have to agree with the person
in all ways, but when I recognize someone else's humanity
and intelligence and allow them to be a part of the
decision-making process, my own life grows richer.
I
learned a lot about compromise from my step-kids.
When I married Terry, who had kids of 10, 12, and 14 years
old, suddenly I wasn't making decisions for or by myself
any more. They were coming from a different place in
life--a much younger place--and they had had very
different input into their lives than I ever had
had. At first it was difficult for me, but
eventually I realized that I had a lot to learn from them,
if I would just allow myself to learn. Many of my
decisions eventually became the decisions that they would
have come to as I learned to compromise more. Our
relationships then grew stronger, and my world grew
richer.
We're
taught to be independent, to look out for number one, to
do things as we see right. But who defines
"right"? I certainly can't define it for
everyone. I don't want to live my life in the
gutters just to say "I did it my way"; I'd
prefer to have allowed other people have a great deal of
influence over me, for they've learned different lessons
in different ways, and by reaching compromises with them,
I allow them to be my teachers. And I learn a great
deal about life.
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