There is a lot is going on in the world these days. The economic meltdown isn’t showing any big signs of recovery. There is anxiety over Iran and North Korea. Pakistan is falling to the Taliban, or so it seems anyway. Iraq has ongoing and unrelenting violence. The problem of Israel and Palestine persists, bigger than ever. America’s new President is stuck between his own ideology (and promises) and the reality of implementation – often falling short of the expectations he raised.
Living in Seattle is an interesting experience. It is the liberal’s haven – people here do all the “right” things – they build sustainably, they recycle and compost, they drive around cars with NO WAR stickers, they celebrate Pride enmass. What many don’t realize is that there is an underlying simmering backlash from those who find themselves in the minority – on the conservative end of the political spectrum – who feel engulfed with this political righteousness. And that it makes someone like me, who wants to adopt the Middle Path, stuck quite in the … well … middle.
I have found myself feeling this in personal life situations as well. Whenever faced with black-and-white rhetoric, I seem to become quite irresistably compelled to become the devil’s advocate. And then I have to remind myself that I am only reacting to extremism, and allowing it to (temporarily) polarize myself; that I really do believe in something in the middle.
My boyfriend JW has an endearing (and equally irritating) habit of often saying, when we’re discussing complex subjects, “It’s a mix of both.” I have often asked him to articulate what two things (both) “it” really is a mix of, and he doesn’t oblige. That’s all I get. When I am not blinded with unbridled passion on the subject, I am able to remind myself that he is really trying to say that it doesn’t have to be one way or another, that there is an integrative solution to every problem.
I think again of Roger Martin’s Opposable Mind: the idea that the sophisticated human mind can hold seemingly opposite positions and find an answer that is in neither extreme, but is better than, and transcends either extreme. This capability for integrative thinking produces breakthroughs, and it is essential to great leadership. And this is not a capability that is the prerogative of a few blessed leaders, it can be very much cultivated, Martin says.
And I think of The Buddha, who exhorted humanity to (understand and) follow the Middle Path. Or simply put: A Mix of Both.
