The Land Of Purposeful Paradoxes - The Birthplace Of Your
Divinely Inspired Life Purpose
"I have heard it said that heroism can be redefined for our age
as the ability to tolerate paradox, to embrace seemingly
opposing forces without rejecting one or the other just for the
sheer relief of it, and to understand that life is the game
played between two paradoxical goalposts: winning is good and so
is losing; freedom is good and so is authority, having and
giving; action and passivity; sex and celibacy; income and
outgo; courage and fear. One doesn't cancel out the other. Both
are true. They may sit on opposite sides of the table, but
beneath it their legs are entwined."
Gregg Levoy from Callings: Finding and Following the Authentic
Life
Paradox is defined as something that appears to contradict
itself, two statements that say opposite things and yet are both
true. Something that seems to contradict itself and when heard
together form a Truth. If there is such a thing as Truth in the
cosmos, one of the most interesting places to find truth is in a
paradox because like we said in our definition of a paradox, a
paradox contains multiple truths. We as humans tend to want to
see things as either/or, black or white. We are often
uncomfortable with two things being true. We tend to want things
one-way or the other. Do you have a FAVORITE paradox? Here are a
few examples: "The more you learn, the less you know." Or "The
more things change, the more they stay the same".... Or one of
my personal favorites from Charles Dickens: "It was the best of
times, it was the worst of times". This statement seems
contradictory right? How can something be both? Now lets listen
for a moment to what Dickens had to say in the rest of that
famous opening sentence... what we have been playing with is
only the briefest introduction: "It was the best of times, it
was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age
of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of
incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of
Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of
despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the
other way."
Sounds like he was talking about our era, right?
When we can be with and even embrace the paradoxical nature of
our world, we move beyond the either/or, black or white thinking
that has in many ways created such havoc on the planet, so I
invite you to ponder a few questions and share your thoughtful
comments here as food for others to ponder: You mean working
hard is good and so is rest and relaxation? (This one is
primarily for me to get. ) What are some of your favorite
paradoxical statements or where you've found a vein of truth in
a paradox out in life? How could you see living in the Land of
Purposeful Paradoxes empowering your life on purpose? What
insight or nugget of gold did you glean from this pondering that
you could integrate into your life with action?