Never the Twain Shall Meet – at Times

“Oh, East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat.”

~Rudyard Kipling.

Ignorance and arrogance are funny things really. They polarise protagonists and to a confusing number of vagaries. We all end up in a place like this when tunnel vision has taken over. Over a few hours on a stray Thursday morning we suddenly wonder how we got ‘here,’ the place of division and discord.

Two Locations – Two Destinations

Until we give in we’ll probably find we’ve painted ourselves into a corner.

The moment our stunting pride gives way to the freeing breeze of humility, life is known again, suddenly, and then the relationship has the chance for survival into another day. It really does depend on us. This is the location of truth to the destiny of life.

The other is a place we stay—the darkened, salty creek that meanders again to nowhere. This is the location of the lie—of self-sufficiency toward relational death.

Acceptance

We need to remember that there are people who’ll choose the latter of these locations and destinations no matter what we do, depending on their very whim and situation.

The best we can offer these people, and certainly ourselves, is the contrite acceptance of the person who cannot control much—apart from making the choice to accept all that is beyond the person.

At times in life East is East and West is West and no crossing over that great chasm is possible.

Unity in this way is vastly overrated, for it only takes one party—even one part of that singular party—to not want to come to the party and we have, all of a sudden, the makings of deriding anarchy.

The smallest of sources becomes paradoxically the largest source of concern and, bizarrely, the controlling centre of power. Log aheads don’t shift for want of them who see themselves as the catalyst for inaction and the confounding of any good plan despite the best of intentions from the vast majority party to the dispute.

And at this too, we can only accept the status quo—at least as the necessary jumping off point to aid wherever we want to get to.

Getting to acceptance is the only real chance at leaping successfully this great chasm that’s become.

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.