PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

Some of us think of life in extremes:
Good or bad
Hot or cold
Love or hate
Rich or poor
Win or lose
It’s as if we take everything we have,
place it on a set of scales,
and see what side comes out
with the most weight…
And that’s how we measure life.

But the truth is, that’s not how life goes.
The pieces of life;
Moments, feelings, thoughts, friends, actions,
All fall across a broad spectrum of dimensions.
Between the extremes, exist a whole world,
most of us will refer to this as gray area.
However, the great thinkers of our world’s history,
say it much more elegantly:

Siddhartha Gautama,
AKA Buddha,
sitting beside a river playing a lute,
Showed us that we must tune carefully;
The string must not be too taut
or too loose, or it won’t sound right.
Calling this the middle way

Kong Ji (or Zisi)
grandson of Confucius,
Wrote the Doctrine of Mean;
A text laden with symbolism,
offering guidance to perfecting one’s self.
Referring to the mean as an
Unwobbling pivot

Aristotle,
Student of Plato,
May well have originated the idea.
He spoke of the desirable middle
between two extremes:
One of excess (a life of hubris).
One of deficiency (a life of cowardice).

This is the Golden Mean (a life of courage).