Comment by begueradj
3 days ago
That means we should embrace life as it is, we should accept its good and bad sides because there is no good without bad, and no bad without good.
It's like in the story written by Khalil Gibran where a pastor passed by an injured Satan who asked for his help and to not let him die.
In the beginning, the pastor refused because Satan is the enemy of humankind, he's behind everything bad that happens to us. By the end, the pastor helped the wounded Satan because without him, the pastor's job and social status can not even exist.
Without the Satan/War/Bad there is no Pastor/Peace/Good. And vice versa.
This is a perspective I’ve seen before but I just don’t buy it. People who have suffered a lot generally don’t become the happiest - often, they end living with PTSD. While people who grow up in nurturing, healthy environments enjoy happiness.
In the context of an article about the birth of the Red Cross, what exactly does accepting the bad side of life mean? Are we to end the ICRC? Accept the Geneva Convention but make no new conventions about behaviour in war? Should we accept and return to the flies and the maggots that are so vividly described in the article as part of the aftermath of battle?