Why we should turn foes into friends?

                    Why we should turn foes into friends?

          It is natural that we, human beings, want to be surrounded by those who love us and those whom we love. However, it is not always possible for us to deal with only those who cherish us and whom we adore. At times in life, we may encounter antagonists who dislike us, who hate us,  who oppose us and who negatively criticize us for whatever we do. Most of us tend to consider those antagonists as our enemies, and we usually feel uncomfortable to communicate with them.Thus, we happen to avoid them as possible as we can. But, the problem is we cannot keep ourselves away from those people all the time. In this small world, we may have some situations that need us to interact with them.For that reason, in my view, it is not a sensible approach to find ways to stay away from those antagonists. I believe we should turn our foes into friends for some reasons as follows.

       First of all, if we see them as enemies,  our heart is more likely to be filled with anger and resentment towards them. We may sometimes fuel those unpleasant emotions day in and day out. As a consequence, we are less likely to gain the peace of mind and inner pleasure. This points out that reciprocating hatred does more harm and good. Therefore, as a Myanmar proverb goes `` Let love live long, let hate short live’´,we ought to let go of our anger and hatred instead of bearing resentment in our mind. Then, we should see those antagonists  with the eyes of love, and treat them with kindness. It is apparent that we should convert our enemies into friends for the sake of our peaceful mind.

        Secondly, it is often said that ``One enemy is too many; thousands of friends are too few´´. Accordingly, it is really important to maximize the number of  friends, and minimize that of foes.So, why would we let those antagonists be our enemies? Abraham Lincoln once said ``I destroy my enemies when I make them friends ´´. Thus, it would be smart of us to befriend our enemies and beat them. In this way, we can also expand our social networks.

        Thirdly, we can create win-win situations if we can build up cozy friendship with the enemies. For instance,  they may excel in the areas we are weak in since different people tend to have different strengths. They may also have different perspectives towards life and experiences in different situations. So, if we become friends with them, we can exchange our insights, learn from each other, collaborate with each other and help each other. 

         In a nutshell, aforementioned reasons point out that it seems better to turn foes into friends for our inner peace and other social aspects rather than avoiding them,  bearing resentment or reciprocating hatred.  

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Kyal Sin Phu
Sunday Special
The Global New Light of Myanmar

18 August 2019