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Hoblin vs Goblin - Chapter 3
Within each of us, there is a peaceful warrior, who is prepared to defend their beliefs in how to best achieve universal peace among all living beings. Though peace and war are opposites, neither is good or bad. The peaceful side is necessary to find harmony and balance among neighbors and countrymen.The war side is necessary to defend your home, family, and country against wild animals and natural disasters. By setting peaceful examples, we hope others will follow our lead and find peace as well. By preparing for war, we hope to deter, or scare away, our natural enemies.
This battle is inside of us. We are constantly struggling to understand how to sustain a perfect balance between the two opposites within us. The idea of there being two opposites does not mean that one is good and one is bad.
There are many opposites in nature that are both equally good; for example, we breath oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Trees and plants breath carbon dioxide and release oxygen. These two opposing forces allow us to live in balance with the natural habitat. If one of these forces is reduced, then the other will have less of what it needs to survive. Therefore cutting down trees is bad for humans.
Together the two opposites form a dualistic interdependent coexistence; or simply, they are both good for each other. The fact that they are opposites is the very reason either exists. If they both needed oxygen and released carbon dioxide, then we would fight the trees for the precious resource they would be stealing. Trees would have evolved to better defend themselves much like weeds that seem to grow wherever they can despite our best efforts to prevent them, and we would have evolved to defeat trees.
But that is not the case. Trees provide us oxygen. Without trees, we die. Alao, wood retains heat. That’s why houses in colder climates are made out of wood. But living trees retain 500% more heat than wood beams. That means that houses containing trees within them or grown as part of the shell of housing, such as a tree whose trunk is part of a wall, stay warmer in cold months than houses without live trees. Those houses without live trees require greater resources to stay warm in the winter, like oil or gas, both of which are expensive and bad for our long-term survival.
So we must find a balance between our need to cut down trees and our newd for living trees. Every house should have one tree in it that stays green in the winter. That should be a minimum. Ideally, there should be one for every human in the household. As the child grows, so does their tree.
This is just one example of opposites needing each other to coexist. Another would be the sun and our skin. Left out too long in the sun, and we die of poisoning or sun stroke. Avoided completely, and we suffer from vitamin D deficiency. So again, we have to find a balance between the dangerous radiation from the sun and our need for vitamins.
Another example of opposites living in harmony is predators and herds of wild animals. They need each other to survive, but at the same time, are natural enemies. But this concept of enemies is a human perception and perspective. These animals do not see each other as enemies. Granted a zebra would not want to be caught alone with a pack of hyenas, but those predators keep the herd active and prevent over population. Without predators, the herds would grow to unhealthy numbers and a sedentary lifestyle would reduce their ability to sustain their species.
This brings us back to the peace and war found within each of us. A proper balance in life leads to greater inner peace, but even the most peaceful have a battle within them between two opposing forces. Such is the human condition. We prepare for war in the hopes of achieving peace. But if we do not prepare for war, we risk being overpowered by orher forces. Thus we must find a balance between our need for peace and our need for war.
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