Lessons from Professor Lee

Professor Lee, a renowned, no-nonsense Presidential Consultant in Taiwan, disarmingly reminded us that we’re incapable of effecting meaningful change in the world today. It felt like something of a slap in the face then a kiss of death (then another slap in the face – he said it multiple times) to most of us bright-eyed (U.S.) Americans. At face value was a senile geriatric whose younger dreams were quickly overpowered by some unforeseen obstruction, something like the sudden loss of an immediate family member or an undeserved company release. I could see the elicited shock and subsequent disbelief from many of my peers. Digging deeper, though, is the same wisdom that I’ve experienced from my closest mentors, including my own mother. It’s the classic terrestrial battle between man and nature: can he master his destiny, or will a tree hit him into the ground first? Mr. Lee, of course, believes the latter. It’s not that foolish hope inevitably results in failure, but that it takes a village to raze a forest. Certainly, the Margaret Meads of the world will contest that protests begin with one, and revolutions begin with only a few more. I don’t think anyone can deny, though, that regardless of the idolatry that follows singular, albeit exceptional, examples (Martin Luther King, Jr., Mother Teresa, etc.), it takes an army to spread – and sustain – adoration.

Moreover, Mr. Lee emphasized that short-term planning and diligence should replace futile advanced-planning. Again, much disgust ensued. After all, we’re Generation Me: we are driven by meaning and perceive that we are entitled to only the world’s best resources to get us there. Anything that steers us off the highway or obstructs our view even a few feet is rejected and terminated immediately. The message here was very clear: life throws us curveballs that we can only finesse by recognition and compromise. And that – in the juncture that separates comfort and change – is where the diligence must be invoked.

To close his remarks, Professor Lee assured us that we mean absolutely nothing to him, that our existence persists only because oxygen-breathing creatures may not have the most difficult time inhabiting in an oxygen-filled planet with plentiful water (for now, for some) and food (again, for now and for some). I’m still picking at his meaning, but based on the positive reactions from others in my group and other allusions made during his lecture, I’m inferring that he sees other things – such as alleviating poverty – as more pressing. I have to agree.

In short, I liked the guy a lot. A whole lot. The breath of fresh air may have hardened a few lungs, but all in all, I appreciated the change (and later, others might appreciate their metamorphoses).