PARADOXICAL

The faith chronicles

Thursday, July 20, 2006

 

Conflict of interest


We need to be different, yet we need to band with the rest of humanity. We need to be unique, yet we need to be accepted for who we are. We need to stand out, but we need to blend in as well. These are obviously conflicting things are that deep inside of us. But we continue to live with these opposites, carrying this conflict of needs within us.

I want this pair of jeans just like the rest, but I want just this design. I want it unique, but I hope the rest who don't find it will like it, too.

It's really hard to say "I'll wear this or I'll do that and don't care what other people say." We need to stand out, but we want to be accepted for it. In our heart of hearts, we'd appreciate it if we are at least acknowledged for our audacity. We want to belong to a community of like-minded believers. We like to be loved, but we also love to be loved for who we are.

The individual seems to be always at war with the community, and vice-versa. It's an unsettling dynamic, but it seems to be a natural one. Think about the reverse: a world of boring monotony, of think-alike conformity. It would be a corn field, where each corn stalk is no different from the next.

How do we maintain diversity without creating disharmony? How do we celebrate diversity without declaring war on the conformity-loving community? A tall order, yes. A discordant picture, yes.

But man has long been fine with it. Man has long been living with this discord. I tend to believe it's a universal principle categorizable under "Unity in Diversity." After all, it's the exact same attribute attributable to the Trinitarian God, who themselves are one, though they are of three msyterious persons. We carry that same conflict within us for as long as we live. How to find the balance is a question whose answer we have to figure out for ourselves for a lifetime.

4.6.2000


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