The wisdom in leaving the world unchanged

This is not to say things should remain the way they are, but that sometimes its wiser
to choose the slower, more difficult path to the change we may never benefit from.

Your local news channel is probably the last place on earth youd expect to hear something so
beautiful that it restores your faith in humanity so intensely that youre left speechless and cant
immediately tell what just hit you.

Its a bit exaggerated but this is what happened to me while I was watching Jessica Sohos
show State of the Nation. I still have no idea why I wasnt watching something else (No offense,
Ms. Soho.), but Im thankful I didnt change the channel. It was showing her interview with
Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio. Hes part of the delegation that went to the arbitral
tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands to present the Philippine case against Chinas reclamation of
islands in the West Philippine Sea. Soho asked him what will happen if we win in the arbitral
tribunal. Can the UN kick China out of these islands and can we then own whatever structures
theyve built on them? She seemed to be saying (or maybe its just me) That would be nice,
wouldnt it?

According to Justice Carpio, heres whats going to happen if we do win: China wont comply.
Then well sponsor a resolution in the general assembly and try to gain support from other
countries against Chinas noncompliance. Then China will shake its head again. Then well
sponsor another resolution the year after that. Still, China wont budge. So well sponsor yet
anotherand

so on, until after maybe three generations, China might realize, when almost no
other country is on its side, that noncompliance is costing them so much in their reputation. And
voila!China will finally comply.

It might sound like some sick kind of international red tape, but instead of a person lining up for
three hours in a government office to renew her drivers license, we have an entire nation waiting
for three generations to enforce a ruling. But Justice Carpio didnt sound like a bureaucrat
justifying the slowness of the process. He sounded more like Dumbledore or Aslan. It was as
though he had access to a truth the rest of us dont see when he said, So we should look at this
as a long term struggle, even an inter-generational struggle. This generation will win the ruling,
the next generation will convince the world, and maybe the generation after that will convince
China, but we should not expect instant gratification here [even] if we win this ruling.

There seems to be wisdom in Justice Carpios faith in the international justice system. He
acknowledged that the process can be slow and painful, but its also peaceful and effective
(Carpio says theres a 97-percent compliance rate, even if it sometimes takes ages.). But whats
moving about Justice Carpios words is his resolve to fight for something he might not live to
see.

And, days later, I was reminded of Justice Carpios interview by a speech of Pope Francis. He
was talking about the importance of working towards social justice and also touched on caring
for the environment. But what struck me most was this: You are sowers of change Change
seen not as something which will one day result from any one political decision or change in
social structure I like the image of a process, where the drive to sow, to water seeds which
others will see sprout, replaces the ambition to occupy every available position of power and to
see immediate results.

Indeed there is something both dangerous and destructive in wanting immediate results. This
impatience is sometimes mistaken for a fervor for social change, which can then be used as an
excuse for unbridled ambition and a thirst for power.

There are probably people out there who were humble individuals, willing to do good for others,
and then eventually became megalomaniacs as they grew more and more frustrated with the
slowness of the process of change. And with their growing frustration they also became
increasingly convinced that the fate of the world is in their hands and that they must become
influential enough to change it.

There is nothing wrong in wanting to change the world for the better, but there are cases when
hastening the process can change the world for the worse. Violence, corruption, and injustice
might ensue. Thus, the wiser among us are ready to accept that they will leave the world roughly
unchanged when they die, despite everything theyve done. They know that their work needs
more time to be impactful, or that someone else has to build on it. Some of their names have
remained and will probably remain unknown except to a few lives theyve touched with their
kindness and warmth. And when the seeds theyve sown have finally become trees, no one will
even remember their faces.

Justice Carpios and the popes words have also reminded me of yet another remarkable person,
the mathematician Alexander Grothendieck, who died last November 2014. He solved some of
the worlds most difficult math problems (theyre so difficult I dont even understand the nature
of their difficulty). He was once asked how he works on such puzzles, and his answer somehow
echoes the ideas of Justice Carpio and Pope Francis. According to him, a difficult problem is like

a nut you soak in water, and from time to time you rub [it] so the liquid penetrates better, and
otherwise you let time pass. The shell becomes more exible through weeks and monthswhen

the time is ripe, hand pressure is enough, the shell opens like a perfectly ripened avocado!

Its tempting to crush that nut to bits. But something is lost when we dothe
very reason why
we want to open it. Maybe the same thing goes for things we usually fight for, not just nuts and
avocados. Sometimes these things usually have epic-sounding names like justice, progress,
freedom, peace, and love. There are some people who want to have a taste of that ripened
avocado tooor
whatever you may want to call itand

then take the credit. There are those
who are willing to wait and arent searching for fame, though they sometimes get it, nonetheless.

Famous or not, these people are contented with knowing that one day their grandchildren would
have a taste of that ripened fruit, even if they themselves never will. Theyre the ones who can
restore our faith in humanity and leave us speechless, unable to tell what just hit us.