So much pain is caused by our human difficulty with holding in mind two truths; working with dialectics. Synthesising apparent contradictions can be healing and yet it’s hard.
I am right and yet you’re not wrong. I am responsible and yet it’s not my fault. You need help and yet we cannot help you. I have empathy for your position yet will challenge your action. We are where we are and yet must move. There is good evidence and yet it is equivocal.
Being with apparently contradictory ideas is hard. The urge to resolve this by holding fast in one position and denying the other, rather than synthesising or honouring them both leads to words and actions that can be harmful and are experienced as dismissive or dishonest.
I’m not thinking just about MH care here necessarily. It’s in politics, the Covid response, science, justice, education, our communities and relationships.
Being with uncertainty, tension between ideas, discomfort, movement. We’re not taught or supported to do this well. And yet it’s where the good stuff is; the healing, the understanding, collective strength, the connection.
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