Just reposting some old works of mine. This particular one was written shortly after I’d read about Hermia, the Greek goddess of the hearth (sometime around the September of 2014).

The Power to Yield

“The world is cruel”, “Life is unfair”, we hear people go on and on about how they feel this world is a mess. I don’t profess to be unlike them; I think so too. But for a moment, if you willed yourself to look beyond the apparent “mess”, you will come to see the grand work of art, the intricate mechanism that runs this world.

  So let me try to bring to light what I see behind this veil that hides the cogs that keep the cycle of life in motion.

  The most famous law of nature known to everyone is “Survival of the Fittest”. The strong devour (in one sense or another) the weak. That is how the food chain works. And this is one of the most disputed laws of nature; “how is this fair to those that are weak?” And keep in mind that I myself think so quite often.

  But ask yourself this: If everyone was strong, how bad would the conflict be? Being at the top of the food chain (both actually and metaphorically), we humans should know it the best. The truth is that the weak hold far greater power than the strong: the Power to Yield.

  If the plants refused to be eaten by herbivores, and herbivores refused to get hunted by carnivores, we would have a rather untenable problem at hand. What about governments? Could there be one where no one is ‘stronger’ or ‘weaker’? What I am trying to say, is that nature is itself structured so. It dictates that the strong must devour the weak. Incidentally, this is why I am personally opposed to the notion of veganism.

  Of course, this is very much open to dispute. And I don’t at all claim that this is the ‘absolute truth’. Far from it. It is just the opinion of a naive kid. Maybe my own point of view will change as I grow up. I can already see loopholes here. What should one do if a great evil is more powerful than you? What if someone who has nothing but the greatest of good intentions is simply not powerful enough?

  It is, in the end, a simple matter of perception. And it reminds me of a short poem I once came across:

A bit beyond perception’s reach

I sometimes believe I see

That life is two locked boxes, each

Containing the other’s key.

-Piet Hein

So, what is your perception?