Can we understand a man without knowing his enemies? Can we know
yin without knowing yang? My father would say no. He would say if
you want to see new vistas of Truth, go question the man who wants
to kill you.
A man lives. When he is young he has more friends than he can
count. He ages. The circle narrows. It turns inward, becoming more
closed. We spend our middle and later years doing the same things
with the same few friends. Seldom do we admit new faces to the
clique.
But we never stop making enemies.
They are like dragon’s teeth flung wildly about us as we
trudge along the paths of our lives. They spring up everywhere,
unwanted, unexpected, sometimes unseen and unknown. Sometimes we
make or inherit them simply by being who or what we are.
My father was an old, old man. He was his father’s
son.
His enemies were legion. He never knew how many and who they
were.
Can we understand a man without knowing his enemies? Can we know
yin without knowing yang? My father would say no. He would say if
you want to see new vistas of Truth, go question the man who wants
to kill you.
A man lives. When he is young he has more friends than he can
count. He ages. The circle narrows. It turns inward, becoming more
closed. We spend our middle and later years doing the same things
with the same few friends. Seldom do we admit new faces to the
clique.
But we never stop making enemies.
They are like dragon’s teeth flung wildly about us as we
trudge along the paths of our lives. They spring up everywhere,
unwanted, unexpected, sometimes unseen and unknown. Sometimes we
make or inherit them simply by being who or what we are.
My father was an old, old man. He was his father’s
son.
His enemies were legion. He never knew how many and who they
were.