The smart person accepts, the idiot insists.

Sep 19, 2010 22:29

Found an illuminating paragraph in another terrific article from Vanity Fair. This article is about the Greek bond crisis, but it reveals a lot about Greeks in general. Anyways, the author is meeting the number two monk in a large monastery in northern Greece, and writes:

He points to a sign he has tacked up on one of his cabinets, and translates it from the Greek: the smart person accepts. the idiot insists.

He got it, he says, on one of his business trips to the Ministry of Tourism. “This is the secret of success for anywhere in the world, not just the monastery,” he says, and then goes on to describe pretty much word for word the first rule of improvisational comedy, or for that matter any successful collaborative enterprise. Take whatever is thrown at you and build upon it. “Yes … and” rather than “No … but.” “The idiot is bound by his pride,” he says. “It always has to be his way. This is also true of the person who is deceptive or doing things wrong: he always tries to justify himself. A person who is bright in regard to his spiritual life is humble. He accepts what others tell him-criticism, ideas-and he works with them.”

Here's the beginning of the article. Hope you've got an hour to blow.
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