June 8, 2008
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
“HAPPINESS is not the absence of conflict,
but the ability to cope with it”.
Author unknown
Life is a combination of the bitter and the sweet, Love and hate, the benign and the malignant,
pleasure and pain, life and death. Death is a certainty which may come at any time in our lives for the very reason that we are born. No one can escape suffering who is born of the flesh. No matter how we care the body, there will come the time when it will begin to wear. The best we can do is to rather let it wear and keep bright by using it wisely, and not let it rust by idleness or disuse.
We do not earn happiness through the absence of conflict as the author rightly observes, but by being able to cope with it. When we cope successfully with one conflict, we become stronger and much more able to cope with a greater one.
Comment by Randall Butisingh.
Satwinder said,
June 8, 2008 at 10:46 am
hey thr,
I’ve been going through ur blogs for a couple of days after i found an article about u on yahoo.com “96-year-old blogger”…. Ur blogs r really worth spending time on. one gets to learn so many things while analizing them in the real life situations.
regarding ur blog entry
“HAPPINESS is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it”.
u correctly quoted that “When we cope successfully with one conflict, we become stronger and much more able to cope with a greater one”
but don’t u think that there is a limit for everyone’s patience, though we say that troubles make us stronger…. but the other side of the coin is that…. more ‘n more people suffer cardiac problems just ‘coz they can’t take these anymore…. sometimes, i feel that whatever is quoted by the great authors is worth practicing in real life but then at the other times, there is total shift of mind and then, the thoughts arise: – “all of this is just bookish and has nothing to do with the real life”.
Patanjali Ramlall said,
June 8, 2008 at 2:02 pm
Thank you SIR, for bringing that out.
A superhuman test of the ability to cope with conflict is reflected in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “Gulag Archipelago”. He later ascribed this coping mechanism to a personal spiritual revelation.
Another feat done under similar circumstances was by first P.M. of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, GLIMPSES OF WORLD HISTORY*, An acclaimed Penguin Classic.
This was written while doing time under the British Raj for fighting non-violently, for his country’s freedom. He was separated from his wife, Kamala, who was simultaneously incarcerated at Malacca Gaol, and from his thirteen-year old daughter, Indira.
Indira was later chosen as India’s 3rd P.M. The entire History was completed in about 30 months in prison, with little or no reference books, or Encyclopaedias, except a Prison Library, in 1930.
This is PERSEVERANCE AND COPING WITH CONFLICT.
* also known as “Letters From a Father to Daughter”
randall butisingh said,
June 8, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Thanks Pat for examplees of great personages who battled with conflict and emerged victorious. Your contribution complements my remarks. I hope bloggers will take note.
randall butisingh said,
June 9, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Thanks Satwinder for visiting my blog and for your favourable commennt. As regard Patience, most people tend to become impatient after a little effort. They want to see results quickly, but it does not work like that. One has to put one’s shoulder to the wheel and toil to succeed; and this includes failing many times. Patience is a test of character. And Hope helps to sustain it.