Conflict Resolution

Jok’s car is still out of commission so Jim and I rode with his friend instead. We headed out of Bangkok to the famous Damnoen Saduak floating market. The ride was smooth so I looked out of the window our entire two-hour ride to the market.

The highway runs through an industrial park; factories, chemical plants, scrap yards, other manufacturing compounds were everywhere. The side of the roads was piled with dirt, garbage, leftover construction material, and more dirt. As soon as I was ready to slouch back into my seat and declare that there was really nothing to see, and there it was, a golden, shining, architecturally fascinating temple that caught my eyes. Who built the temple here with such grand scale? Who worship at this temple? Do they need to have the temple here because working here can be so obviously depressing? Or maybe being allowed here to work is such a blessing that they built the temple to thank the Buddha for answering their prayers? The dirt piles, factories, and grand golden temples went on for miles, which to me, was such a contradiction...

Can you imagine living in a country so contradictory like Thailand? Not only the old and young are caught in between a different value system like the rest of us, the disparity between the super rich and dirt poor, the balance between the pursuit of capitalism and devotion to religion, and the living condition that is between modern high-rises with top-end Western amenities versus mud huts with absolutely nothing . How can a place and its people allow so much contractions and conflicts to co-exist? Could it be the teaching and practices of Buddhism? Or is it the hopeful and compromising nature of the Thais?

To thrive in a contradictory place like Thailand, what qualities and skills do you have to acquire so that you survive, and survive happily? I wonder, if I was living in this part of the world, what traits do I lack, as a product of Western education, will allow me to thrive? The answer to this question will probably improve my chances of resolving conflicts in my day-to-day seemingly “Western” world.