The Good, the Bad & the Centrist
What is excitement without boredom? What is a good man without the bad men? What is life without death? The answer lies in between.
Balance & the Evenness of the Center
There is rarely a grey zone in the way we think. As civilized people, we tend to belong to groups that share the same values. This implies having debates and conflicts. It is ‘them against us’. Unfortunately, we always forget about the impartial, the ground between two sides.
I do not really believe in astrology, but as a libra, all I look for is balance between opposite forces. As a hyper sensitive person, I try to get along with the world, not just one part of it. Unfortunately, this most likely means that I belong to a small group with not much room: the group in the center.
Nonetheless, I believe in the centrist way of approaching life since I think the greater good lies between left and right in order to create global harmony. The middle ground is where everyone can shake hands living behind the reasons why we fight.
Acceptance
I learned with pain to accept the fact that I would stand pretty much alone in the center lane because that’s not how people think. By accepting that, I am now able to get rid of my frustrations, conflicts, pains, loneliness and sadness related to my position.
People are not close to become impartial, but I realized that all I had to improve my happiness was to accept differences and my lack of power over the world. That was the beginning of my journey of being at peace toward everything else.
Learning to Let Go
We always try to have a control over things and we lose so much effort in the process. Of course having control helps you get what you desire, but most of the time you are powerless. You do not always get what you want because:
- you do not control timing
- you do not control the others
- you do not control the unpredictable
World is all about chaos and I alone will not bring total harmony in it. Accepting my lack of power led me to inner peace because I can spend my efforts where it really matters. I can easily define what I have power over. Moreover, I know what I do not control.
Ironically, I have more power. I have power over how I react to undesirable certitudes: boredom, conflicts, lack of control, losses and even death. I do not try to avoid it all because I am made of emotions, I just try to accept bad things over which I do not have control. I choose my battles, I look at my options to make things better, then I accept and let go.
The Need for Opposition
What is between right and left? The middle!
Would we be ever excited if there was no boredom? Waiting to be excited means to be bored for a while. Otherwise, excitement would not exist. Imagine having eternal life. How meaningless would be our existence with no end? After all, knowing that we will die dictates with pressure how we need to do something out of our life to give a sense to it.
Opposition and great paradoxes give sense to our life. Without a departure point and an end line, there is nothing. What really matter are the journeys between.
Final Thought
Acceptance was the missing value in order to find the right balance to be at peace in this chaotic world driven by opposite forces. This is how I connect with the world as a whole. This is how I am more at peace. I now belong to the universe, not to a small group anymore.
I try to share my philosophical thoughts in order to inspire others who share my struggles. I wrote another article providing a quick guide through four philosophical movements that allowed me to find more peace through other struggles:
I mostly write about productivity, design, spirituality and phenomenology along with other philosophy movements, because it always starts with ourselves.
Feel free to read more of my articles. Follow me and/or the side projects collective I founded recently called Lightspeed Turtle.
Thanks for reading. :)
Tommy
