BEND LIKE THE GRASS... SO THAT YOU WON'T BE BROKEN













Pic.: Natrajan Ramsubramani


“I think there is a tendency for people to get rigid and caught up
in their beliefs of what is right and wrong, and they lose sight of humanity.
Being human has to come first before right or wrong.”

- Matisyahu

I was in 9th standard when I heard from our English teacher this quote:

“Bend like the grass… so that you won’t be broken.”

Well, even though I was not even 15 then, I was lucky to have possessed sufficient wisdom to grasp the essence of that quote. Yes, ever since then, I have consciously avoided an extremely rigid attitude… Yes, in all my dealings, with one and all.

Let me confess this without any reservation: Like most around me, I, too, am ‘rigid’ in my beliefs and principles… That is, if being firm or steadfast is what being ‘rigid’ here means. I have a set of beliefs and principles which guide me like a lamp post in my life… But, then, I assess the situations, too… If my beliefs and principles come on the way of ‘larger good’ or my own inner peace, yes, I have no fear or guilt by accommodating and making way for the other view, by being flexible…

I prefer to bend like the grass… so that I won’t be broken.

I, seriously think being consciously pliable in life – not being too rigid – is hallmark of the highest form of ‘education’. And, yes, I am prepared to broadcast it from any platform…

Rigidity destroys peace…

Rigidity breeds anxiety…

Rigidity isolates us in Society…

Rigidity implies that we haven’t chosen a life of ‘conscious living’…

Rigidity implies that we have chosen ‘being right’ to be more important than ‘being peaceful’…

Rigidity means we have put our own good before the larger good…

Am I wrong?

Well, I am not rigid, there, as well!


GERALD D’CUNHA

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