TAKING WHOLE Taking Whole is a concept I accidentally came across in a management book that postulated some deep insights into Eastern thoughts. Simply, it means taking everything into account---your interest as well as that of your adversary and the general environment of operation. What?! My personal upbringing and schooling had always been about winning. You destroy an opponent and rub his nose on the ground if need be. As I delved into the concept, internalized, and got older, it began to make sense. When the Christian Crusaders went to Jerusalem they killed anything that moved and the soldiers were walking on rivers of blood on the streets. If you could end an idea by such brutality there would be no Islam nor Judaism today. Not long after, the Muslim Saladin came and defeated the Crusaders and won over Jerusalem. He, however, took whole and generously allowed the practices of Christianity and Judaism to coexist. Had Richard the Lion-Heart taken whole and not slaughtered the Muslim defenders of Jerusalem when he retook it, may be we could be having a different history of Palestine today. As it is, Jerusalem is still a contested piece of rocky real estate nearly two millennia later. What about us? We could use a dose of Taking Whole. When we insist on doing it to political adversaries, when we stubbornly insist on defused concept of culture, or when family falls apart in unforgiving and obstinate done-me-wrongs, we are not taking whole and we exist in the twilight zone of Palestine where there are plenty of losers and bad blood.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 11:16:56 +0000
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