Roses and lemons
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“And I lift my glass to the awful truth
Which you can’t reveal to the ears of youth
Except to say it isn’t worth a dime…”
—Leonard Cohen
One of my favourite stories is about a peasant farmer in ancient China.
One day, the farmer’s horse runs away.
“This is terrible news,” say the farmer’s neighbours.
“We’ll see,” says the farmer.
Later, the horse returns with a team of wild horses
“Ah! This is good fortune,” say the neighbours.
We’ll see,” says the farmer.
Then one day, the farmer’s son breaks a leg while training one of the wild horses.
“This is terrible news,” say the neighbours.
Again, the farmer says: “we’ll see.”
Then war comes to the kingdom and and emperor’s army looks to conscript healthy men. They don’t take the farmer’s son because he is hobbled by the broken leg.
What good fortune,” exclaim the neighbours.
“We’ll see.” says the farmer.
Some events in life may harm us, but not as much as our judgment of them can.
Because judgment is rooted in perception. And perception is never the truth. At best, it’s a model of how to understand things.
So believe what you want but do so with care: otherwise we can condemn ourselves to a limited understanding of what is possible in this life.
My point here isn’t just limited to our judgment of events. Our ego (https://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=89226eb68936fc712577977b8&id=139aecc4fa) is forever busy comparing our inside self to the outside self of others, too.
There, we are prone—as Kierkegaard warns—of judging our lives purely on aesthetic grounds.
“Does this look fun and beautiful to others, or boring and dull?” Don’t waste time on such questions.
Letting go of our judgment and need for validation is one of the must important, necessary steps for living an antifragile life.
I think of this often today as I carry on with my walk through countrysides, passing farmhouses that grow rose bushes and lemon trees.
Enjoy the roses, but mind the thorns. And with lemons, they obviously won’t sustain you, but in them you’ll find a building block for making great tasting things.
So smell the roses. And learn to cook with the lemons. All things—from sublime to difficult—are the materials you’re given to build with and transform. (https://us4.campaign-archive.com/?u=89226eb68936fc712577977b8&id=7d04d86461)
Very best, Patrick Copyright © |CURRENT_YEAR| |LIST:COMPANY|, All rights reserved. |IFNOT:ARCHIVE_PAGE| |LIST:DESCRIPTION|
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