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Keeping Peace
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Keeping Peace |
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kaile
since 2000-02-06
Posts 5146singapore 
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The standard way to resolve conflicts between two disagreeing kids is to force them to look at each other in the eye and shake hands. No matter how angry they are or how much they hate each other's guts, they will inevitably burst out in merry laughter and grin sheepishly, as if embarrassed that they got caught away in the moment We have a lot to learn from kids, despite their naviety. But it is perhaps because we no longer own this luxury of being naive that sometimes we just can't get along I distinctly remember the day when I was holed up in Macdonalds with two other friends trying to gain some perspective after finishing our exams. My favourite tune came up on the radio and I urged them to stop talking so that we could enjoy the song together. Also, one friend didn't have had the sweet joy of listening to the song yet and I badly wanted her opinion on it, having sung its praises probably more times than she could bear She kept strangely quiet after the song was over and I had to ask, "Well?", still expecting her to declare an affection for my favourite song She said weakly, "It was okay...." and there was this tentative pause after that, which meant that she was more than okay with letting the whole thing go but was also resigned to prolonging her discomfort since she realised that I wasn't going to be satisfied That's where it hit me with a bang: Unlike the unrefutable 3 Laws of Newton, Truth can be relative. It doesn't matter what you believe because others may not subscribe to it, having equally valued beliefs of their own. Or simply in this case, there is no song universally lauded as good Now, schoolboy brawls (and several fights) haven't taught me that yet. In my defense though, I was 16 then and my educational system focussed too much on the academic. Of course, I did realise that we are all different, owing to different cultural and social backgrounds but I didn't think that our world views are coloured by such varying combinations of factors That defining moment changed me forever. I could have been hurt by what I preceived was a callous remark from my friend. If a conflict did occur between us, there was no way peace could have been maintained between us because we came with different stands (unless of course, one of us was willing to compromise) And I haven't moved beyond petty trivial adolescent concerns yet! I imagined the arduous work the United Nations and other assorted organisations had to undergo and was momentarily flabbergasted My account above might have seemed lame but that's indeed how I started to think about conflict resolution and peacemaking efforts [This message has been edited by kaile (05-19-2003 02:57 PM).] |
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| © Copyright 2003 heng kaile - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Larry C
since 2001-09-10
Posts 10286United States |
kaile, Lame huh? Not from here. Epiphanies are seldom lame and for sure your writing isn't. Well that's MHO! Well done.  If tears could build a stairway and memories a lane, I'd walk right up to heaven and bring you home again. |
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