Opinion by Madeleine Albright: Resilience of spirit, more than intellect, is the key to life
My home city, Washington, is not yet a state and is therefore without U.S. senators it can call its own. We do, however, have some very old cemeteries. Racked by weather and time, their headstones typically resemble the teeth of an out-punched boxer: some still upright, some crooked or broken, some clumped together and others separated by irregular gaps. Study closely enough the barely legible birth and death dates inscribed on their well-worn surfaces, and it becomes hard to hold back tears.
As this evidence attests, through much of the past, life has been a gamble that many lost without ever being given a fair chance to succeed. For centuries, families routinely bore half a dozen offspring or more and, shortly after, on average, buried several of them. In some countries, this is still the case.
In foreign policy, my area of expertise, I have been compelled at regular intervals to modify my views in light of new information without abandoning certain basic principles. “Genius” is often defined as the ability to be right the first time; unable to meet that standard consistently, I still strive to be right eventually. My parents taught me what the best teachers tell us all: that it is no sin to make a mistake, but unpardonable not to try to make the most of our talents.
No matter how smart we are, we can allow sorrows and grievances to overwhelm us, or we can respond positively to setbacks — be they caused by our own misjudgments or by forces beyond our control. This choice has rarely been starker than in the past two years. As individuals, we have had to adapt to the shock of unwelcome and unexpected circumstances.
To those who despair of that possibility, I have a measure of sympathy but little patience. There is no shortage of worthwhile work to be done and, as those broken headstones remind us, no surplus of seasons in which to achieve our goals.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Opinion | I'm an Iraqi and I Remember Madeleine Albright for Who She Truly Was'Before you write or repost articles about Albright and how wonderful it is to see women pushing boundaries and breaking glass ceilings in politics, take a minute to learn what she chose to do with the power she had.'
Read more »
Remembering Madeleine Albright'She was a woman of courage and conviction,' writes Cameron Munter, a former colleague of Albright's. 'But also a warm personality, exquisitely aware of the world around her, and never without either her composure or her sense of humor.'
Read more »
NASA reveals the essential key to spotting extraterrestrial lifeNASA researchers have found that methane could be a possible sign of alien life — and the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope can further prove it.
Read more »
In detecting alien life on a faraway planet, methane may be the keyFor humankind, evidence for life beyond Earth is unlikely to be as dramatic as an alien spaceship landing, say, next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It is more likely to come from telescope observations of a faraway planet bearing atmospheric chemicals suggestive of biological activity.
Read more »
Opinion: Texas GOP is pro-affluent-life, not pro-lifeTexans, stand up and tell our officials that hate of trans people is hate. Love is love, another reader writes.
Read more »
Dear Care and Feeding: I’m Worried My Husband’s April Fool’s Antics Will Really Damage My SonI’m petrified of what my husband has in store for my son this year, after what happened last year.
Read more »