Human failure.WE CANNOT CONTROL OUR LIFE. If were are set upon doing so, we have a abdicated from peace, which must balance what is desired with what is possible. As Hokusai shows so memorably, the great wave is in waiting for any boat. It is unpredictable, as uncontrollable now as it was at the dawn of time. Will the slender boats survive, or will they be overwhelmed? The risk is a human constant; it has to be accepted--and laid aside. What we can do, we do. Beyond that, we endure, our endurance framed by a sense of what matters and what does not. The worst is not that we may be overwhelmed by disaster, but to fail to live by principle. Yet we are fallible fal·li·ble adj. 1. Capable of making an error: Humans are only fallible. 2. Tending or likely to be erroneous: fallible hypotheses. , and so the real worst, the antithesis of peace, is to refuse to recognize failure and humbly begin again. By SISTER WENDY BECKETT Sister Wendy Beckett (born February 25 1930) is a South African-born British art expert, consecrated virgin and contemplative hermit who became an unlikely celebrity during the 1990s, presenting a series of acclaimed art history documentaries for the BBC. of Norfolk, England, well-known for her BBC BBC in full British Broadcasting Corp. Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. and PBS PBS in full Public Broadcasting Service Private, nonprofit U.S. corporation of public television stations. PBS provides its member stations, which are supported by public funds and private contributions rather than by commercials, with educational, cultural, television art series and her popular art books. Reprinted with permission from: Sister Wendy's Book of Meditations (DK Publishing, 1998; 888-342-5357). Painting: The Great Wave of Kanagawa, by Katsushika Hokusai Katsushika Hokusai: see Hokusai. , 1831 (Private collection/Art Resource, NY). |
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