Working under pressure


WORKING UNDER PRESSURE
Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB
            Today, we have many courses and therapies which deal with how to cope with the pressures and tensions of life. Yet though it may sound a bit ironic, history shows us that people who have lived under the pressures of life bloomed into wonderful personalities.
            In this light, I was struck by an insight which was written by John Wijngaards in one of his books called, “How to make sense of God”, “Eight million years ago our ancestors, the apes lived in Africa. Geological upheavals caused the continent to split into two halves: the western half retained lush, tropical forests while the eastern half turned dry and semi-desert. What was the result? The apes in the western part continued in their fixed life style. Today’s chimpanzees in Rwanda and Zaire are their direct descendants. But the apes in the arid savannahs of East Africa were put under increasing duress. No trees to hide in; no fruits to collect; no safety from predators on the flat ground. It was the need to survive such new demands that led to those apes developing the traits that would gradually make them hominid, then human. It was the suffering, struggling, hard pressed apes that, by the unexpected discovery of new opportunities, found the way to human intelligence”.   
            I also feel that in this regard, we could infer that evil leads to good and we can cite examples in this regard from Sacred Scripture. For instance the early chapters in Sacred Scripture hint at this link between evil and good (progress). Adam and Eve lost their childlike innocence by eating the forbidden fruit; but it also opened their eyes and made them a little like God (Genesis 3:4-7). Cain was the first murderer, yet it was he who built the first city (Genesis 4:17). Finally, did not our Lord say, “Unless the grain of wheat dies, it cannot bear fruit”. He Himself chose a violent death to redeem humankind when He could have chosen otherwise, perhaps with a blink of an eye or a command to the forces of evil. Thus we could infer that success and joy are things that are indirectly present in suffering and sorrow; they are blessings in disguise as John Nouwen would say, “The dance of life finds its meaning in grief”.
            Applying this in the context of education, we see that some of the best known educators belong to such a category. Even in some of the lives of great inventors of the world, we see that despite the hardships or circumstances, they came out of it and became “someone” in life. This was the insight that struck me.    

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