There is a doctrine about Opposition in my religion. Essentially, the more good one tries to do, the more opposition to doing that good from what Star Wars calls the “dark side” can be expected.
Thus, when I am hit with especially egregious difficulties trying to help an indigent client, on one level, I figure I must be doing the right thing.
The poem I posted deals with the reality that not caving in, not appeasing, not going off and getting drunk when opposition appears means:
-You get stronger
-Your character learns courage
-You gain in fortitude (an old, unfashionable, but necessary virtue for a healthy society)
-You gain discernment
-You gain in self discipline, and the ability to proactively make choices rather than just react
Every time anyone takes the easier, softer way out, they become diminished in all these qualities.
No, I am not impressed with what I see from the leadership of my party in this regard with regard to how “opposition” has been handled. Not at all.
Sometimes the opposition I face is a flare up of arthritis.
Sometimes it is a state agency that is not helping or actively harming a client.
One example of opposition I face is that my husband’s job was outsourced by banksters to Mumbai.
So, what do you think? Opposition can be and often is circumstances, health issues, social trends, but also other attorneys who can, at times, be flipped from opponents to members of a team working for the good of a family.
Sometimes I am fighting an agenda of parental alienation by one parent so child retains access to both parents.
Oh, yeah, and the snow this winter, now THAT was opposition to my even getting to court on time.
seascrapersays
I have arthritis too. My view on the health of the human body changed a few years ago when I learned that the plaques that form in our arteries are part of the same process which helps us form strong bones. Why I developed arthritis I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it had very little to do with my behavior. What advantages I had as a younger person, when the processes which led to my arthritis were working on building my body, is something we don’t see as part of our illness, but it must have been there. There are qualities my body must have had as someone with strong bones and muscles that other people just didn’t have. I didn’t do much to gain a nice body and I haven’t done much to develop a creaky one, but here we are.
This doesn’t mean when I was in pain all the time, that I didn’t fight it, I made myself get up and move around even though without the drugs it was a losing battle. The human species is not interested in having us live forever — evolution only expects us to reproduce as quickly as possible for our ecological niche and then move on and leave room for others. Of course our personal imperative within that system is to fight and fight for survival.
As far as the state or other governments, living in Boston is a non-stop struggle simply to get what you paid for. But I never approach a confrontation with a bureaucrat or elected official without a full understanding of what that person wants, why he is doing what he is doing, and that behind him are people who are seeking money for their own survival who will fight as hard as I am willing to fight. I try to be right of course, but even a government like the City of Boston has developed from principles that were the right choice at one time.
I have far more in common with passionate individuals who fight for what they believe in than I do with narcissistic inviduals who care only for their own immediate pleasures and gratification.
Often, what is most worthwhile requires the most effort, while the “softer easier way” of giving up, giving in, letting the banksters and greedsters prevail, chosing pleasure over effort is so much ‘easier’ – but at least to me, and it appears, to you, a far less meaningful and honorable path to take.
My “opposition” is most likely to be beaurecratic inertia, health, and limited resources, though not always.
There is a doctrine about Opposition in my religion. Essentially, the more good one tries to do, the more opposition to doing that good from what Star Wars calls the “dark side” can be expected.
Thus, when I am hit with especially egregious difficulties trying to help an indigent client, on one level, I figure I must be doing the right thing.
The poem I posted deals with the reality that not caving in, not appeasing, not going off and getting drunk when opposition appears means:
-You get stronger
-Your character learns courage
-You gain in fortitude (an old, unfashionable, but necessary virtue for a healthy society)
-You gain discernment
-You gain in self discipline, and the ability to proactively make choices rather than just react
Every time anyone takes the easier, softer way out, they become diminished in all these qualities.
No, I am not impressed with what I see from the leadership of my party in this regard with regard to how “opposition” has been handled. Not at all.
Michael Otterson has written what I think of as one of the best explanations of the “there must needs be opposition in all things” doctrine: http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/panelists/michael_otterson/2007/09/opposition_in_all_things_1.html
Do those who oppose you do good?
Sometimes the opposition I face is a flare up of arthritis.
Sometimes it is a state agency that is not helping or actively harming a client.
One example of opposition I face is that my husband’s job was outsourced by banksters to Mumbai.
So, what do you think? Opposition can be and often is circumstances, health issues, social trends, but also other attorneys who can, at times, be flipped from opponents to members of a team working for the good of a family.
Sometimes I am fighting an agenda of parental alienation by one parent so child retains access to both parents.
Oh, yeah, and the snow this winter, now THAT was opposition to my even getting to court on time.
I have arthritis too. My view on the health of the human body changed a few years ago when I learned that the plaques that form in our arteries are part of the same process which helps us form strong bones. Why I developed arthritis I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure it had very little to do with my behavior. What advantages I had as a younger person, when the processes which led to my arthritis were working on building my body, is something we don’t see as part of our illness, but it must have been there. There are qualities my body must have had as someone with strong bones and muscles that other people just didn’t have. I didn’t do much to gain a nice body and I haven’t done much to develop a creaky one, but here we are.
This doesn’t mean when I was in pain all the time, that I didn’t fight it, I made myself get up and move around even though without the drugs it was a losing battle. The human species is not interested in having us live forever — evolution only expects us to reproduce as quickly as possible for our ecological niche and then move on and leave room for others. Of course our personal imperative within that system is to fight and fight for survival.
As far as the state or other governments, living in Boston is a non-stop struggle simply to get what you paid for. But I never approach a confrontation with a bureaucrat or elected official without a full understanding of what that person wants, why he is doing what he is doing, and that behind him are people who are seeking money for their own survival who will fight as hard as I am willing to fight. I try to be right of course, but even a government like the City of Boston has developed from principles that were the right choice at one time.
I have far more in common with passionate individuals who fight for what they believe in than I do with narcissistic inviduals who care only for their own immediate pleasures and gratification.
Often, what is most worthwhile requires the most effort, while the “softer easier way” of giving up, giving in, letting the banksters and greedsters prevail, chosing pleasure over effort is so much ‘easier’ – but at least to me, and it appears, to you, a far less meaningful and honorable path to take.
My “opposition” is most likely to be beaurecratic inertia, health, and limited resources, though not always.