Column: Wisdom despite crisis
by Frank Haber
What is positive about experiencing an existentially threatening crisis as human and humanity? Perhaps, it is the destruction of brittle old certainties prompting us to notice what really, really matters in life. When familiar routines cannot continue, assets lose their value and future perspectives become insecure, we are forced to develop novel routines, redefine values and set goals more sustainable than those we painfully had to let go off.
One of the most IMPACTFUL experiences of my life happened roundabout 30 years ago when I was hit by a car on my way to delivering a sermon as representative of the Protestant Students Community of the University of Applied Sciences in Fulda, Germany. We travelled in a yellow pre-airbag VW Polo, built in the late 70ies, with me on the left side in the rear. The police later told us that a big blue limousine had hit us left at a speed of approximately 80 Kilometers per hour. The driver, they said, didn’t even have time to break when my friend drove across his way oblivious of the red stop sign he had overlooked. It’s a miracle that no one died given that we flew through the air like a kicked tin finishing our trip abruptly on the field next to the road upside down. For me, it was just a beginning.
This is something, that I wished, my parents had told me earlier about. Anyway, it is never too late, until it’s too late, we all know that. So here we go. Let’s explore something really crucial in life: The idea of balance as something positive. For me balance is like an optimal relationship between two or more integral parts of a whole. Aren’t these various parts constituting a whole, although distinctly different and potentially antagonistic, even meant to relate to each other in such a good way that they can make the magic of life happen?