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Have you seen the popular inspiring Flash movie, "The Final Analysis" yet. You can view it by clicking on the icon on the left. The poem in Flash form is the theme of this article and the focus of the book, "Anyway" by Kent Keith when he was a sophomore at Harvard. (see bottom of page).
An adapted version of the poem attributd to Mother Teresa was found pinned on the wall in one of her orphanages in Calcultta, India. "The Final Analysis" Flash movie uses Mother Teresa's version, but the two are very similar.
Kent Keith had called his poem the "Paradoxical commandments".
The paradox is obvious: We ought to return evil with good and hatred with
love. Gandhi gained independence for India practising this. Martin Luther
King adapted it for his cicil rights movement. Nelson Mandela brought
healing to South Africa with the same message. It is a hard act to live
up to but these commandments are true and in our times, practised to almost
perfection by Mother Teresa. That is why I had chosen her version of the
poem.
From the poem,
"People are
often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway!"
What if we do not forgive? We will learn to hate instead (Box 2). The more we live in an environment of unreasonable, illogical and self-centered people, which pretty much describe many environments, we will learn to hate, and the hate will deepen over time (Box 2). This is because a vicious cycle is created as shown in Map 1. See the solid arrows from Box 1 to Box 2 and vice-versa. This cycle cannot be broken unless we are prepared to love or forgive (Box 3). The dashed arrow from Box 3 to Box 1 suggest more of Box 3 influence results in a lesser Box 1. We need more people to buy into learning to love and forgive otherwise we face a dim future.
Verse
2 of the poem,
"If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish,
ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway!"
Too many people are selfish. They do things with ulterior motives and how they accuse truly kind-hearted people only affirm who they really are because they are imagining that these good-hearted people are like them but even more capable of taking ulterior motives to a new levels and achieving their selfish goals better than they are!
Such attitude and behavior will breed distrust in the community and start another vicious cycle as shown in the relationship between Box 1 and Box 2 of Map 2. Again, the way to limit the damage of such a vicious cycle is to be steadfastly kind (Box 3).
If we combine Map 1 and Map 2 we get Map 3. Pay special attention to the two blue arrows that join Map 1 and Map 2. They represent another vicious cycle that came about from two earlier vicious cycles. It is not hard to imagine that people that are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered will also be accusing, selfish and often harbor ulterior motives. In fact, the first two verses of the poem hold the keys to the rest of the Paradoxical Commandments. If we learn to live by these two verses, the rest of the poem become much easier to follow because we have removed the power of these vicious cycles to create and support downstream vicious cycles. Allow Mother Teresa and Kent Keith show you how. Listed below are some of the best writings on this subject. It is the key to finding sustainable personal meaning and happiness in what we do in our jobs and volunteering.
Related Flash movies
Desiderata
Serenity
Prayer
St. Francis
Prayer