Strife

“A multitude of evilly disposed people stir up strife, just as a crowd of mosquitoes can make a noise like thunder.”

Sima Qian

          Strife… but Sima Qian was certainly not the first to touch on the issue of strife. Long before he wrote these quoted words in his “Biography of the King of Zhongsha” (first century AD), Homer had something similar to say. In book 18 of Homer’s Iliad, there is a piece where Achilles (the great Greek hero) is in dialogue with his mother Thetis. He said the following:

“I wish that strife would vanish away from among gods and mortals, and gal, which makes a man grow angry for all his great mind, thát gall of anger that swarms like smoke inside of a man’s heart and becomes a thing sweeter to him by far than the dripping of honey.”

I will linger for a while on the Greeks, for they believed that it was Eris, the goddess of discord and strife, who was responsible for causing strife in their lives. She was the initiator, the personification thereof, and as such, she was to be blamed. Our world is riddled with strife and discord, and Eris still runs rampant in our current day and age. How will we ever eradicate strife?

I think we will never be able to do so, but we can withstand it. It will require an effort from each individual to withstand any form of strife and discord. This can be done simply by embracing love, kindness and compassion. We should, however, know better than to blame our tendency for conflict on some goddess somewhere out there in the ether. Strife resides within you, it is only YOU who can allow it to come to the surface, so it is your responsibility to address any form of strife in your life. May this day be your first day in which you vow to live a life free from the shackles of strife.

It is through discord and strife, ERIS

that you prevent humanity from a life of loving bliss.

You orchestrated the cause of the Trojan War,

yes, discordance will always be your main endeavour.

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