The coming together of themes

I wrote recently about how having heroes fails us in life and then the story broke last week about General Petraeus and his affair.  I wonder how many people held him up as a hero but, like the rest of us, he is only human and not perfect.  I wonder how many people from a distance now feel let down by what has become world news.  We so often feel let down by others, by ones who mean so much to us and by ones for whom we have such high expectations and you know what?  It is probably mainly about us and our needs and not about the others whom we have made into heroes in some way.  We do everybody, including ourselves, a disservice by making ourselves, no matter who it is, into who we are not. 

I know how human and imperfect I am.  I am just like the rest of the human race.  Yesterday, the manager here at BRC made a personal comment that hurt me.  I saw it as a lack of tact.  Then today, when we met in the meeting area of BRC, I thought that I justly stated my position on the matter.  She told me, as Thais always do, not to get angry but I saw it as my speaking strongly (or my mind as my mother would say) and not as being angry.  We then come to an understanding, or for me a new insight yet again.  She said what we have here is a cross-cultural misunderstanding.  She said that what I took as an offence was never meant as one.  Yes, you may not talk like this back home in Australia but we are in Thailand and what was said yesterday speaks of how we play with each other as Thais.  So no offence!  And I have a healthy reminder before me of what is happening and that I, like my manager and everyone else, am only human and should never be too ready to judge or to hold grudges. 

I believe there is a connection here between the two stories.  For me, it is all a bit 'has been' but it is still worth naming as it is what has happened yet again.  Through crisis (no matter how little or big), there is growth; through misunderstanding (no matter how little or big), if confronted, there comes understanding. Herein, there is a hard lesson as it involves hurt and sometimes shame or disgrace.  It also involves facing oneself and sometimes admitting wrong or having to say sorry.  None of this is ever easy but, as they say - again 'a 'has been', no pain, no gain OR anything worth having or being does not come easy.