WILL I BE BROKEN, OR WILL I PREVAIL?

 Men are born soft and supple;

dead, they are stiff and hard.

Plants are born tender and pliant;

dead, they are brittle and dry.

Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible

is a disciple of death.

Whoever is soft and yielding

is a disciple of life.

The hard and stiff will be broken.

The soft and supple will prevail.

—LAO TZU,  (Tao Te Ching, chapter 76, )

When chosen effectively, an identity can be flexible rather than  brittle. Like water flowing around an obstacle, your identity works with the changing circumstances rather than against them.  Lao Tzu talks about the cycle of life. When we were born, we were soft and supple. It is the same way with all living things. Even plants are born tender and pliant. But, then, we go through the cycle of life; we grow, we mature, we die. This is nature. Nature’s cycle of life. When you die, you become stiff and hard. When plants die, they become brittle and dry. Once again, that is the way of nature. (translation by Stephen Mitchell)

Be soft and be immortal.

Be the bully and be destroyed.
How many times must this lesson be taught?  ( translation by Jeremy M. Miller, 2013)

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