This Morning 4/10/12 Eating Bitterness

Chi Ku: Eating Bitterness

In Chinese culture, the expression "eating bitterness" is attached to the concept of enduring grueling, monotonous, hard work.  Although it is the stuff of our ancestors - the many who lived without running water, snow plows, Giant food stores, or Apple - it is a difficult pill to swallow in present American culture (or Chinese culture for that matter).  

I find it a curious expression because of its blatant acknowledgement that survival is not, often, a happy experience.  This contrasts starkly to the pretentious claims by NewAgers  and other Fundamentalist-type religious or psycho-babble proponents who blame your own "bad" thoughts for your difficult lot in life.  By "bad" thoughts, I'm addressing a sense of complete awareness of the drudgery involving  acts of habitual, demanding activities, day-in and day-out, with a "can't wait till this is over today" anticipation.  I have to wonder if Walmart workers really can love their jobs.

The question is this:
Does "eating bitterness" detract from the overall valuable experience of life?

The answer, from my perspective, comes down to acceptance: 
Can we accept the bitterness without feeling bitter?

This brings me to one of the most important, and overlooked, guides for living.  Although attributed to a Christian minister, Reinhold Niebuhr, it is called the Serenity Prayer, but can easily be called the Path of Acceptance:

God, 
Grant me the 
Serenity 
 To Accept the things I cannot Change
Courage, 
To Change the things I Can
And Wisdom
To Know the Difference

Of course, then there is also the Mother Goose Rhyme:

For every ailment under the sun
There is a remedy, or there is none;
If there be one, try to find it;
If there be none, never mind it.

It seems the Chinese must have had something like these verses in mind when the phrase, chi ku, was acknowledged.  

I live a good life.  I am fed, clothed, and sheltered adequately.  Acceptance of a certain amount of hardship to have the privilege of living upon this beautiful earth does not harm my sense of balance.  It, in fact, creates it.  

There is nothing wrong with chi ku.
There is nothing right about it either.
It just is.
I accept it.