Adaptation
Once I was listening to a radio talk with an old man who fought in the First World War. The reporter wanted to know how he could bear the shock of losing his friends and comrades. He simply answered: he adapted. For the first two weeks every single evening he was crying like a child from the woe caused by seeing friends that died in torture right next to him or in his arms, he felt he couldn’t get away from these terrible pictures. But later he became insensitive. He never cried any more, felt no pain, just did what he had to do.
He adapted.
We are able to adapt even to the most extreme situations. But there are every day examples too at hand. After staying at the sun for long you enter a dark room, first you can’t see anything but gradually your vision becomes accustomed to the altered conditions. Have you ever thought about how quickly your skin becomes accustomed to the clothes you put on and then you are not aware of wearing them? Or why you just don’t react on the background noise of your environment? We adapt. Our body is amazingly adaptive.
As Darwin said „It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” and this thought also works on the short run. You should adapt to changes in all circumstances exactly as your body does.
It does not mean of course that you should give up your value system. Perhaps you need to alter them a bit but just ignore them this time. The thing is that in case I was left alone with a value that I find important, I would get acclimatized, still I would wait patiently but with senses alert like a secret agent ready for action. The strategy would be simple: I would build up my strategy from zero step by step, steadily and enduringly. In the end I would change my environment. Do you understand now what the point is?
Don’t care about the past just draw the consequences, learn from them and let it go. Adapt to the new situation and just do what you have to do.
Simply be responsive!
