Koan

Back in February I posted some words about my New Year's
resolution, which came down to the intent to work at
understanding the compulsion we all (?) share to overcome
difficulties, resistence, lack, defeat.

That post went as follows:

My new year's resolution, as a life-long striver,
was "to understand overcoming." This turned into
a poem of aspiration yesterday, jotted down on my
last wallet-carried slip of paper:

TWO WORD POEM

Overcoming
overcoming

Then, just the other day, a solution to my self-imposed
koan floated into my mind -- lines from Eliot's "Ash Wednesday":

"Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still."

Yes: at one and same time, to care and not to care,
thus overcoming overcoming. And why, you might ask,
wouldn't one praise and welcome this compulsion to
overcome? Why bother overcoming-overcoming?

Ah, could be...that's YOUR koan!