Life is too important to be taken seriously - O.Wilde
Kristina's blog
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Burning the bridges
I hardly recall any instances in my life when I had to burn the bridges. I have lived in 6 countries, made 180-degree-turns in my life, given up nearly everything for a dream, but I have never had to say: “there is no way back!” May be it’s because I am such a pathological optimist and I think changes are just another step in the journey.
The other day, I woke up realizing that sometimes, strings have to be cut off for good. Am I giving up? Is it an escape? Revange? Despair? Whatever it is, I don’t want to burn my bridges again!
A physician, an architect and a politician are arguing whose profession is the oldest. Physician: “Remember, on the sixth day God took a rib from Adam and fashioned Eve, making him the first surgeon. Therefore, medicine is the oldest profession." Architect: “But before anything existed there was nothing but chaos, everything had to be planned, blueprinted, and built, that my friends takes the skills of an architect.” Then the politician looked at his friends and simply said: “Who do you think created the chaos?”
Joel Feinberg once wrote that besides moral rights, humans need legal rights, which are protected by law and which “can be demanded or insisted upon without embarrassment or shame”. He said: “rights are not mere gifts or favors, motivated by love or pity, for which gratitude is the sole fitting response.” According to Feinberg, in the world, in which there were no legal rights, only moral rights, “the harm to individual self-esteem and character development would be incalculable”. He spoke of the world in which all people “are dignified objects of respect, both in their own eye and in the view of others”.
Reading these inspiring ideas, I though of how beautiful it would be if moral rights were protected by law and, in such case, how stupid I was for being grateful to people who treat me nicely. After all, it is my right to be respected, and by being grateful for something which is my right anyway, I cause an incalculable harm to my self-esteem.
The bottom-line is that it is your right to be respected and treated well, so if anyone treats you bad, just tell the bugger to f… off – it’s your moral right!
If you are looking for Kristina from Estonia, who studied in Tallinn Humanitarian School, Tallinn Technical University, worked for AIESEC in Estonia and Norway, then in Harju County Government, then was stuck in New York for a year, then worked for CARAM Asia in Malaysia, and finally ended up studying international politics in the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and writing a research project for Oxfam in Oxford, then here I am. I have a husband Vishen, who is an entrepreneur, and a son Hayden, who is a sleepy-hungry newborn baby.
