BEND WITHOUT BREAKING

BEND WITHOUT BREAKING

Zeno’s paradox of the tortoise and Achilles embezzled the minds of the ancient sages. Here, he authored several ingenious arguments to prove the impossibility of motion. According to this Greek wizard, motion or movement is an illusion. This Greek virtuoso really puzzled my mind. Then, I come to the realization that he is right. Sometimes, movement is really an illusion. Let me prove this with my few experience.

When I was in fourth year high school, one of my favorite subject was physics. In physics, we’ve studied plane’s movement during turbulence. When a jet plane is headed into a violent storm, though it is the world’s most advanced plane, the passengers there would say, “Are we going to make it?” The passengers are most probably worried if they could land safely. But in my surprise, as my teacher demonstrates the movement of the jet plane, I easily got the principle why jet plane could fly even it is headed into a violent storm.

The engineers designed the wings of the aircraft magnificently. The wings of the plane actually bend in flight with the forces of nature. The wings are bending, flexing and yielding to the wind even during storm. I couldn’t imagine that these huge metal boards made up of platinum, the hardest metal in the world, could bend without breaking. In this case, I agreed to Zeno that movement, sometimes, is an illusion.

As I dig up deeply Zeno’s illusion, I was able to reflect and relate it with my experience mentioned above. Bending the hardest metal in the world, most probably, the result will be, it would break. Like a jet plane, how do I respond in the midst of turmoil? How do I behave when suddenly confronted by a force that seems stronger than my self?

Unfortunately, when I face major problems, I respond by becoming extremely tense and inflexible. I clench my fists; set my jaw, and dare anyone to come within ten feet. I realized that instead of having a rigid reaction, there are other better approaches. I should be adaptable and elastic in tough situations. I should learn to ride out the storms of life and even allow these storms to work for me.

Most of us have more or less experienced what I am talking about. We’ve put into several trials that challenge our personality and character. Whatever problems that are ahead before us, we should be able to handle not the problem but handle our selves. We should learn to quickly adapt to new situations. We should be flexible. Brittle steel will shatter. When it has been tempered, however, it has been known to withstand a mighty earthquake.

In every situation, we should seek agreement rather than discord. We should be responsive than use resistance and to compromise rather than to seek conflict. By putting these courses of actions into practice, like the wings of an airplane, we could know what it means to be “bend without breaking”.