He began to float back and forth in the air in front of me with his hands clasped behind his back. I supposed it was his equivalent of pacing.
“It’s possible for you, or anyone else to not be right and still not be wrong, just as you can be right from a business standpoint, but wrong from a humanitarian viewpoint. The worlds are complex, and people are a hopeless tangle of contradictions. Conditions change not only from situation to situation and person to person, but from moment to moment as well. Trying to kid yourself that there’s some master key to what’s right and wrong is ridiculous . . . worse than that, it’s dangerous, because you’ll always end up feeling incompetent and inadequate when it eludes you.”
Even though I was having trouble grasping what he was saying, that last part rang a bell. It described with uncomfortable accuracy how I felt about myself more often than not! I tried to listen more closely.
“You’ve got to accept that life is complicated and often frustrating. What’s right for you may not be right for Aahz. There are even times when there is no right answer . . . just the least objectionable of several bad choices. Recognize that, then don’t waste time and energy wondering why it is or railing that it’s unfair . . . accept it.”
“I . . . I’ll try,” I said “but it’s not easy.”
“Of course it’s not easy!” the Djin shot back. “Who ever said it was easy? Nothing’s easy. Sometimes it’s less difficult than at other times, but it’s never easy. Part of your problem is that you keep thinking things should be easy, so you assume the easy way is the right way. Case in point: