Nature has a pretty good balance, I’ll tell you. It is all the Push Me / Pull Me…. Yin and Yang…. Peanut Butter and Jelly… kind of vibe.
In nature…. there are friendly relationships… all over the place. Like a bee and a flower. Or certain fish, with other fish. Sometimes, you will see the awesome, like the balance of the forest floor, or the ecosystem of a pond.
But… at the same time… there is the whole attitude of “Survival of the Fittest.” The strong survive. It can be a little cut throat at times. Deadly.
The same is true for us. In terms of the human condition, I think most people…. given the choice…..would follow the more serene and placid path of cooperation. As opposed to kill or be killed. Most people, I say.
Yes. It is called cooperation. Working together. There are so many times when we can create something completely incredible when we work together. There are a ton of examples, but the one that springs to mind are sandbags. When some place faces danger from floodwaters, one person could move 10,000 sandbags, for sure. But if you have 100 people… cooperating and working together… that work will be done more efficiently. And faster. Before the entire town is swept away.
Even though we humans know this to be true….. I have found / seen that cooperating with others seems to be a great challenge for people. Most of the time it is because we can’t agree on how we get to point B from point A. We have different priorities, agendas, experiences. We have different ideas and methods for doing things.
With all of that aside, cooperation is the best solution, much of the time.
So how do we do this? Get past the personal agendas and move toward cooperation? A good start would be this. We could listen more. We could try to understand other people’s point of view. We could try walking in their shoes. Compromise.
We can look for common ground, instead of focusing on our difference. And. Like the old saying goes… “There is more than one way to skin a cat.” Meaning…. there are a ton of different approaches to any one task. Someone else MAY have a better way.
The other thing is this. We all have different talents. So instead of always being right, it might be good to look at another’s abilities as a plus.
And we should always believe that there is a solution.
Because, I do believe there IS a solution.
There are a lot of tremendous people in this world. Many times, working together, is the best way. We can learn from others, and they can learn from us. It is called growing and discovering. And that is a good thing.
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“We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.”
― Bill Clinton
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“If everyone helps to hold up the sky, then one person does not become tired.”
― Askhari Johnson Hodari, Lifelines: The Black Book of Proverbs
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“Let the improvement of yourself keep you so busy that you have no time to criticize others.”
― Roy T. Bennett, The Light in the Heart
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