My way and the highway. Same difference.

You are right and I am right and let us all live in peace. Why can't people live with that? Why is it that one feels a sense of achievement only when he has submission from the other party, some credit for being the right one in the discussion? Or is that the point of a discussion?...to go hoist a teeny weeny flag of victory in the cranium of the other, a fort conquered, a point made.. 1-Luv ...Point 1 to Y, next serve X.

I always wonder about people who are so adamant about their way being the only right way. The inflexible, “my way or the highway” attitude sometimes seems to me like one’s desperate attempt at convincing the critic within self, more than the other party in discussion; like repeating something a hundred times will somehow make it all real. A frantic attempt at holding on to beliefs, eyes & ears shut to what the other person is saying, lest the other person says something that shakes the foundation of our belief system of many years. How far do we go before we snap under pressure of our own rigidity?

On the other hand, if someone is stuck up on flexibility, does that make the person stuck up or flexible!? As someone very intelligent said, “Too much of anything is a bad thing”. Maybe even the case with flexibility. Flexibility is great, one of the most important traits required to take us through life, but where do we draw the line?

Does flexibility mean being a “YES” man at all times? Saying yes to anything and everything just so we can keep those around us happy... at the expense of being unhappy ourselves ? Does it mean living a life sans an opinion of our own, going by another’s opinion...just so that peace prevails!? Give up ones freewill, so as to be the martyr in the battle for peace. How far do we go before someone snaps a collar around our necks for being a tad bit too flexible?

And then, maybe true flexibility is just about acknowledging the other point of view, it is about being aware of an alternate reality which is as real as our own and being comfortable with the differences. No pressure to make it a one view world. Live and let live.

A good debater never lives under the false impression of a one sided story. He knows both sides of the story and decides to argue from a side he is more comfortable with, knowing very well that there exists another view, one that is as real as his own. Only if we could tackle life and the varied views of the bioscope with similar scrutiny, evolve so our views are inclusive instead of exclusive of realities other than our own.

Someday, flexible or not, we will question our own beliefs, Ask why!? And I pray real hard, when that happens, the voice that replies back is our own and there is no stranger we see in the mirror.