The Yin and Yang of Good and Bad

Gas prices approaching $4.00 per gallon. Over 3,000 dead American soldiers in Iraq. Global warming. Drought and water restrictions on the threshold of the hurricane season in Florida. You don’t even have to watch television or pick up a newspaper to hear the dire news, feel the rising unease. Yes, God has a wicked—wickedly funny—sense of humor, and when you get that you understand the nature of polarity.

Not only Americans, but citizens of the world have had more than a recent few years now of hearing about, seeing, and experiencing much of what we don’t want. You could argue this “phase” began with the current President taking office, or shortly thereafter with Sept. 11, 2001, and in the minds of most Americans you’d probably be right. But it’s all relative to your own geographic location, and there’s certainly been enough disaster to go around no matter where you live in the world.

And we should be thankful for every last bit of it. Yes, I said thankful.

Before you succumb to your emotions and walk away in anger or frustration, or denounce me crazy (go ahead, I can’t hear you anyway), let me explain.

There are certain laws of the universe, and they operate in immutable and constant ways. One of these is the law of polarity—all things manifest with their opposite. This manifestation does not necessarily occur simultaneously and not necessarily when and how one might want, but inevitably both sides appear. Love and hate, pride and guilt, passion and anger, Bull and Bear market, all just flipsides of the same coin. Like a battery functions only when both the positive and negative ends are engaged, so moves the energy of life. And no, denying it doesn’t make it any less true.

Well, we love the good stuff; the joy, happiness, wealth, health and prosperity of life. But we so conveniently forget its opposite comes with it. It’s a package deal, but why?

The blessing in experiencing the negative in life is two-fold: 1) there would be no “positive” without its opposite, and 2) there would not be enough contrast for clarity to emerge. If there were no sadness, how could you know happiness, for what would there be to compare it to? And if you didn’t get a chance to learn what you don’t want, how could you figure out what you do want? How could you recognize the dis-ease that is a signal something is out-of-line, off-kilter, or needs to move differently in the system as a whole?

Ultimately everything, good and bad, is part of the same entirety designed to work in unison.