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Volume No. 1 Issue No. 47 - Friday August 29, 2003 |
The Paradox of Life as we Know it by Thomson Fontaine
One day last year, I stood at the southernmost tip of Dominica looking down at a truly amazing phenomenon. To my right were the discernable waters of the Atlantic Ocean, its boisterous waves crashing relentlessly against the coral below. To my left and separated by approximately 200 yards of land were the pristine waters of the Caribbean Sea showing barely a ripple.
Faced with such an amazing and powerful manifestation of nature my mind was immediately drawn to the notion of paradox. Indeed good and evil exists sometimes almost equally on the same plain. The forceful manifestation of what we deem to be evil, which destroy lives, beat mercilessly on the unsuspecting, sometimes is only prevented from completely overwhelming all that is good by the mere presence of someone who cares, an individual or maybe a group of persons who will stand steadfastly between the two.
For years Dominica has been cradled in this same paradoxical cusp. A Nation blessed with riches flirts dangerously with poverty. At one time, threatened by gun-toting mercenaries of the Klu Klax Klan, encouraged by the selfish ambitions of class less politicians. At another almost buried under the unrelenting winds of hurricane David. Now still it is a country pulverized and torn apart along political fault lines. Yet the ceaseless onslaught of all that is negative cannot overcome the peace and tranquility of what remains.
In our own lives we experience and sometimes hear of people confronted almost daily with circumstances and situations that threaten to tear them apart. Yet somehow we manage to survive, to go on, and to keep with the business of living. Life even in its most mundane manifestation is loaded with paradox.
We see children and innocents killed in the name of some �just� cause. Entire peoples subjected to the whims of another separate country under the guise of self preservation. Thousands die lonely and terrified, abandoned by those they once knew and cared for. The rich pile on their wealth while the poor becomes depressingly more dispossessed.
Yet, life goes on. The Atlantic rages, the Caribbean Sea is as tranquil as ever. In the end, more than anything else, we learn to accept what life hands us. We somehow reconcile the good with the evil, the just with the unjust. For instance, we glorify war that kills so that others may live. We define ourselves. We search for meaning in the meaningless expanse of what defines us in the first place.
Now the wind was picking up. The roar of the waves was louder from the Atlantic. Ripples were spreading across the Caribbean Sea. What seemed so sure and certain was being shaken. The paradox was being transformed or rather appeared to be shifting to something less clearly defined. I stood transfixed. I felt blessed to be born in Dominica, such a magnificently beautiful country, and to see so little yet feel and behold so much.
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