It is very difficult to come to terms with the idea that we cannot do something. However, learning humility is an essential lesson in life.
A long time ago, while reading Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse No. 5 or The Children’s Crusade, I was introduced to the famous prayer: «Lord, give me the peace of mind to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change what I can, and wisdom is always to distinguish one from the other. Then he repeatedly heard it on various occasions and himself sometimes repeated it for others. But what better way to say it? You have to break this commandment so many times and get so tired of it that one fine day you wake up and finally understand that it is time not only to pronounce the right words, but also to follow them.
The hardest part is finding the courage to change something. And not even wisdom, so as not to step on a rake. The hardest thing is to find peace of mind and humility. Even with the thought that you cannot do something, it is very difficult to come to terms with it. Nevertheless, learning humility is an essential lesson in life. Humility must be learned at least so that, when the time comes, to be able to adequately reconcile with death. But most importantly, it must be mastered for life.
Personally, I have long been tired of Pyrrhic victories and of Don Quixote. Tired of fighting against injustice, vulgarity and rudeness. Fight and survive. To worry about every rudeness heard on the street, cruelty seen on the Internet, another disappointment encountered along the way. But it is still very difficult to finally come to terms with the imperfection of the world.
And yet, sooner or later, one must learn to accept the world and people as they are. That is, without denying the virtues, do not idealize them and do not demand what they cannot. Do not take bad deeds as a personal insult. And of course, stop asking yourself and the surrounding space all the time: “How is it?”; «How is that possible?»
Can. But it is impossible to change everything and everyone. And you don’t even have to try. You can’t fight world injustice forever. This is part of the life interior, a real, not an invented world, a habitat. Nobody forces her to love. But you don’t have to hate her. Do not let despair and fear enter your heart. You can not spend all your energy only on experiencing and fighting evil.
Better take care of yourself. And to the best of my ability to ennoble the world around me. In the end, there are a lot of such cases that you need to put your hands on. And many, many people who are waiting for us to open our hearts to them.