An article by Sha'Tara, local writer and friend. I (Regis) am NOT the author of these articles.

"Sometimes Bob you have to chew your leg off to get out of life's traps." (The Big Kahuna)
 
  To be Alive is to Compromise

[thoughts from    ~burning woman~   by Sha'Tara]
 
The beauty of getting older, if one has practiced a modicum of wisdom and learned detachment, is that now I can allow myself my own thoughts and I know they are no less valid than any from the so-called great ones. Certainly I began my own walk to self-empowerment through a kind of home-grown philosophy from other peoples' ideas in book, from speeches and documentaries, and not least, from observing people (and animals) going about their business, or butting into others' business, but I sorted through these ideas and observations, forming myself from that background.  The wise ones who wrote and spoke and sometimes demonstrated the truth of their ideals would desire nothing less.  Now I am my own person, with my own philosophy about any aspect of life you may want to throw at me.  I have 'knowledge' that is unshakeable (but may certainly be improved upon), and my own truth, as subjective as that may be (as is all truth).
 
So I have lived many years, and certainly wasted many that could have been used better, but that's how it is and why waste time now on regrets?  My sincere apologies to all those I hurt and that is that.  It did not kill them, so presumably it made them stronger also.  And now?  Now I know that life, at least on this world, is not about competition at all, but about compromise.  Those who learn how to compromise without compromising themselves live 'good' lives.  A good philosophy comes from a well-developed ability to compromise. 
 
That's a big word, compromise.  A very loaded word. A very misunderstood word.  Why must we compromise?  Because, so it appears, life evolves through endless series of choices we must make.  A conundrum: to be alive means we have no choice but to continually choose between endless series of choices!  When the followers of Aenea the Avatar gave answers to her simple questions, she had one answer: choose again. (Rise of Endymion – by Dan Simmons.)  Indeed, once we have made a choice, what is there but to choose again?  A ladder is a tool designed for climbing.  It is made up of rungs.  Once you choose to step on a particular rung, you do not usually choose to remain there.  The reason you are on the ladder is to reach some higher point.  So you step on to the next rung, and the next.  It may be that as you go higher, you hesitate the more because of fear, but your fear will not go away until you climb to the top and step off on that higher vantage point.  And for a time, it will be an exciting, or busy time there, but eventually, you will again seek a ladder: time to choose another vantage point in your evolution, be it spiritual, moral, mental, social, financial, etc.  It is a truism that nothing remains stable.  There is no place beyond which one does not go.  To stand still is to fail, and to fall. 
 
Not every type of evolution is conducive to developing ever higher purpose.  Some is designed to destroy an individual, or a species, making them outreach themselves in their greed or violence or in hedonistic self-love.  So that brings up the wisdom of choices as well; the ability to discern from one's surroundings, what is a 'good' choice, what is not.  In Earthian evolution, as history and our own observations tell us, there is such as good and evil, like it or not.  I heard that debated and mocked by well-known personalities on an e-video today.  But we have the evidence of what happens to a society such as ours when this fact of intelligent/sentient life is not factored in our personal and social choices.  Yes, this is a society that has chosen wrong.  Chosen personal and temporary well-being and comfort over that of many others and chosen also to cling to this choice through violence: to enslave millions to ill-treatment in slave worker mills and sweat shops and to die in our wars so this impossible choice of lifestyle could be maintained.  We know now it is unsustainable and our choices are about to bring us to a terrible downfall, as a nation, and as an empire. 
 
We still have a choice, or choices; we can still compromise: that is a given.  Only now they are much more difficult to make.  We can follow the current political leadership and go along with expanding the war of resource protection in the Middle East into surrounding areas where we have no business being.  Or we can 'eat crow' and admit the wrongness of this war, this national choice, apologize, re-negotiate in a fair and equitable manner for the natural and labor resources of those countries we are now exploiting.  It's an idea, one that will not bring a painless solution to the problems we allowed our leaders to create because the hate and enmity we created will live on for a very long time.  Perhaps we can 'buy' our way out of some major and devastating conflict, but certainly not without serious economic and social losses.  Knowing that such is inevitable anyway no matter how much bombing and strafing we indulge in should help us in making the choice—but I predict it will not.  No lesson of history has ever been heeded by those raised on the rationalization that they are, by nature of religion, race, language, system of government or technological superiority, more worthy than others. 
 
For example, America and Canada have a technology lubricated by the blood of the millions they have decimated to take over their lands and resources.  But that lubrication is drying up and it costs a lot more to ship the blood of Palestinians, Arabs, Pakistanis to the North American continent to lubricate a dying economy than to sick the cavalry to shoot and stomp over natives and Mexicans.  The lie of manifest destiny won't work any longer and the day of accounting for believing in it draws ever nearer.  We've seen the collapse of religious power here.  We've seen the downfall of our respective "Kleptocracies" dubbed democracies.  We are seeing the massive confusion within the greatest power of all: the trinity of finance, economics and business.  This latest Power, the one that promotes and sustains our transitory technology, is about to experience its own crash and there will be no King's horses nor King's men to put it back up.  Politically/historically speaking it was always an inevitability that if either the West or the East (systems of Power) collapsed, that the other would follow suit.  The Cold War ensured that they would meld into an inseparable team, one that could not survive without the other. 
 
Compromise means choices.  Choices should mean using wisdom, knowing where one intends to go.  Life demands that as we evolve we make ever more intelligent, if more difficult, choices.  Life is a game that grows in complexity as we play it.  The problem with that is, life is real.  You cannot just switch to another game once you are in it.  This is not 'Enders Game' (Orson Scott Card Sci-fi) but the endless game.  Every move but one we make now puts us in check.  But we can still compromise.  Maybe we can give them our war-mongering kings to put in an arena so they can watch them experience the reality of those they condemn to death?  It's a choice, though not a compromise.