"It was the best of times..."

The house that I grew up in was a classic split-level or tri-level home.  The front door opened up into a hallway that led to the main floor (kitchen, dining room, living room), and a short four to five step stairway went downstairs from the kitchen into the family room and laundry room, while another similar stairway went upstairs from the entryway to four bedrooms and a full bathroom.  My sister, my parents, and I took each had their own bedroom.  The last bedroom was dubbed "the extra bedroom" and had a guest bed and a lot of other "stuff."  I remember that there was a wire-frame bookshelf that had a lot of old books - some of which were my sister's and some of which were mine.  My mother was a teacher, so some of the old books were ones that she had used in her class.  I remember two in particular - both were early versions of the so-called graphic novel.  One covered the entire history of World War II, while the other was based upon Charles Dickens' classic novel, "A Tale of Two Cities".  I must have read each of these books at least a hundred times.  "A Tale of Two Cities" was my first introduction to Dickens (even before seeing "A Christmas Carol" on television or at the playhouse), and he would become one of my favorite authors.  In fact, to this day, the best book that I have ever read (and as my children know, my all-time favorite) is his thirteenth novel, "Great Expectations".  Anyway, this is my long-winded, roundabout way of introducing one of the best opening paragraphs for a novel of all time:


It was the best of times, it was the worst of time, it was the age of wisdom, it was age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.


The fact that this first paragraph is actually a sentence (although my English teacher never could explain to me why this wasn't a run-on sentence!) is even more awesome.  But the message of these opening lines has never been lost on me - the message is, in fact, very clear.  Dickens speaks to the concept of duality - in other words, there is two of every thing, each opposite to one another.  There can be no good without evil.  There can be no love without hate.  There can be no light without darkness.  There can be no happiness without sadness.  There can be no winning without losing.  There can be no success without failure.  The ancient Greek philosophers called this the "Unity of opposites".  Today, this concept of duality in opposites is known more commonly as the ancient Chinese philosophy of the Yin and Yang, whose symbol is shown below:





The key point here is that everything in nature, everything in life, must balance.  As leaders, we must seek and find that balance in our lives, and we must help the members of our teams find that balance.  With this in mind, failure is not necessarily a bad thing, for only in failure do we often (eventually) find success.  If we do not know sadness, how can we ever learn to appreciate the times when we are happy?    If we do not accept that each and every one of us has so-called dark moments, how can we ever look forward to the so-called light moments.


I recently came across a quote by a New Age author, Anthon St. Maarten, from his book, "Divine Living: The Essential Guide to Your True Destiny."  I have found some measure of comfort in his words during some of the dark days of our present time:


If we never experience the chill of a dark winter, it is very unlikely that we will ever cherish the warmth of a bright summer's day.  Nothing stimulates our appetite for the simple joys of life more than the starvation caused by sadness or desperation.  In order to complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each and every dark tear into a pearl of wisdom, and find the blessing in every curse.


Some times, personal growth and development necessitates finding a balance, so that you may enjoy "the best of times..."  Leadership success is contingent on finding that balance too.