"If, on the other hand, in the midst of difficulties
[The Art of War, Sun Tzu]
I have been remiss. There was, in fact, an incredibly important lesson that I've learned in the last twenty years of which I sometimes need reminding and might as well share too. Indeed, it is perhaps the most crucial of all those lessons as it permeates every day, every situation, every decision. It colors or at least should color how I react to the world around me. In light of the current situation, as everyone begins wrapping their heads around the lock-down measures required to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak, it seems particularly timely.
One of my favorite ideas from one of my favorite books - ostensibly about war but really a manual for life and conflict-resolution in general - I have often quoted (possibly misquoted) as simply "Beneath disaster crouches opportunity". Today I find myself unable to quickly source that particular translation from the text, with the closest being the one above.
In the late 50s and early 60s, John F Kennedy in speeches spoke of how the Chinese symbol for "crisis" was composed of two characters: 'danger' and 'opportunity'. It's been re-quoted by various politicians, particularly American ones, since then, though he was actually mistaken. That is not the correct translation.
But the accuracy of the translations is immaterial. Any avid reader of The Art of War is familiar with the sentiment: life (or leadership or war) is going to throw at you a whole array of good and bad, and success in life (or leadership or war) is not simply about embracing and leveraging the good, but about seizing upon whatever opportunities the bad brings with it.
It is easy to be disheartened in disaster. It is instinctive to duck and cover.
In combat sports, one of the first things fighters must learn is to overcome the reflexive instinct to blink and react to every opponent's move or twitch. They train themselves to keep their eyes open and watch. You can't dodge and counter-attack if you can't see the incoming punch. You can't allow yourself to react to every feint. Instead, one must train the mind to wait, watch, and seize upon openings.
That's not easy to do. It's not easy to do in regular life any more than in the ring either; to receive bad news and to search for the silver lining in that dark cloud takes practice. Remind yourself there are likely opportunities to be had. Search for them. Make that your better instinct.
I host a weekly Dungeons and Dragons game at my house with friends. Each year another group of friends spread between Newfoundland and Ontario get together for "Nerdfest". This year I was set to host in April. My weekly group won't be coming to my house tonight, but we will be meeting online. My friends 'up away' won't be flying in a month, but this week have been busily creating online accounts for audio and game servers, just like the local group. All this is to make it possible to play D&D, board games, and video games online together. In fact, this may be the kick in the pants some of us needed in order to have more opportunities to socialize with friends of old than ever in the past.
Last night Liza-Ann, Dan, and I went for our first walk of the spring (sssh, give me this one) to get out of the house and get some fresh air.
This morning I dusted off a Facebook family group that hadn't seen a post in nearly two years, to reach out to friends and relatives and see how everyone is doing, and now long-overdue conversations have begun.
Rejoice, introverts, you can now safely reach out to all those people you've been meaning to be in touch with and have no fear they'll invite you for an awkward coffee date. You can just chat, online, at a distance and pace that suits you!
But seriously... Life is always going to throw shit at you.
So learn to slip and counter.
"You see a mousetrap
I see free cheese and a fucking challenge"
["Introdiction", Scroobius Pip]
