Everything Has Two Sides

Yefta Andrea
9 min readApr 1, 2018

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Did you ever hear about yin and yang ? the black one and the white one, I’m pretty sure that you must know about that. Maybe no? Ah, It’s okay, even I don’t know about that before, haha!. So, what’s happen with yin and yang? what’s correlation between that thing and this story? Maybe some of you have already know or maybe imagine how this story will end, yes if you have already know about yin and yang things. Then, it will going to bored, haha! You’re totally right, but lemme try to tell it with my way, the different way. Maybe will more fun and not really bored, I hope so, haha!

Okay, back to yin and yang. So why I mention that thing? Okay, well I will tell you about yin and yang first, ’cause maybe there’s some people don’t know about this thing. So, if we look on wikipedia, yin and yang is a one of chinese philoshopy to describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Many tangible dualities (such as light and dark, fire and water, expanding and contracting) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang.

“Black and white shot of ying yang arranged coffee and milk in separate cups” by Alex on Unsplash

My story title is Everything has two sides and then you know about yin and yang. Yah, yin and yang is two sides, so Everything has yin and yang. Okay end of story. Bye! Haha . . No, it’s not the end of story, hehe. Well, wikipedia give some example about dualities like light and dark, fire and water. Those are totally different, two different elements. So, for example like light and dark, we totally know about these. What’s light and what’s dark. How’s light and how’s dark. When we got the light and when we got the dark. Yah, we know about these. So which element that you like? Is the light? or Is the dark? Maybe almost all of you like the light than the dark, but there’s some people like the dark than the light too. Yah, everyone has a choice. So, why you like the light than the dark? or why you like the dark than the light? Everyone has a reason for that, maybe for example, people who like the light have some reason that with the light we can see anything, we can see the beautiful things and the light make life is so helpful, like a lamp, we need a lamp to help us in the night, in the dark. Then how about the dark? okay, people who like the dark have some reason that with the dark we can sleep (for some people who can’t sleep if any light on), we can see the moon and stars, the dark help us in the night, in the city full of the lights. Haha, It’s unbelievable right? maybe some of you just realised about the reason why people like the light or the dark. Yah, That’s why people is unique, always have different things.

The Light

Well, can we say that light is better than dark? or dark is better than light? Can we live without light? Okay, let’s imagine that this universe doesn’t have a light. Without sun, without moon, without stars, without lamp, and without any light on any shape. Then, look your face on the mirror. How’s look? same? nah, are you sure? but first you need to find a mirror, make sure that you can find it. Is that easy? Okay well, if you have a mirror in front of you, then look at it, what do you see? your face? nothing, ha?. Okay make it simple, forget about a mirror and just close your eyes then find a mirror or just tell me how’s look your face right now. Did you see anything? Is there anyone see anything? Okay, if you see anything then you need to repeat again. So, we were acting like a blind man. We can’t see anything, we’re so difficult to walk, infact we can’t see how look our face. We can’t take a selfie like we did everyday, we can’t see anything. Can we live with that? No, we can’t! but why blind man can live with that? Yes, you can feel being a blind man. Respect them, we’re so lucky that we have eyes, so let’s be nice, they need help from us. Okay, why blind man can live with that? wait, everyone including blind man can’t live with that. Can we live without sun? Yah, now you know what I mean, without sun, there’s no life. Apart from light, sun is biggest energy source that we need.

The Dark

Well, that’s about light, then we’re talking about dark, can we live without dark? Okay, let’s act same before but with different situation, let’s imagine that this universe doesn’t have dark. Hmm, this more complicated than light analogy. But, do you know how dark is created? Okay make a simple, your shadow, when and what’s situation that you can’t see the shadow? Pause. Let’s find the answer for my question. Did you find the answer? then what’s your answer? Is when the night? No, absolutely nope, because we can see our shadow because of light from night lamp and the moon of course. So when we can’t see the shadow? When the sun position exact above our head, hmm still nope, because we still can see our shadow when we move, like for example we try to make one of our arm to straight horizontal position, then we can see the shadow. Okay, here are answer, so we can’t see shadow with two conditions. First condition is when we’re in the fully dark room, no light. On that case, we can’t see the shadow because the dark. Yes this is one of answers for shadow case but we can’t use this as answer for question about can we live without dark, why? Let’s continue to second condition. The second condition is when we’re in fully light room with completely there’s no small space for the dark. On that case we can’t see the shadow, because the light is coming from all sides and we’re completely difficult to open our eyes. This case similar with blind man, but with different colour. Again, we should respect them, because we already know that they need our help and they are awesome because they can live with that condition, they are better than us. So, this can answer the question about can we live without dark, same with the light, we can’t live without dark. We need dark, to help us sleep, we need dark to see the beautiful light. Well, we’re totally need dark and light as same level.

“The silhouette of a man standing on a rock during sunset at Shenandoah National Park” by Bryan Minear on Unsplash

Dark and Light, Yin and Yang. The things that we needed in our life. So, why we discuss about these? Is that any correlation between these and this story title? Yes. So, this title is everything has two sides, then we can say everything has yin and yang. Well, maybe some of you can guess the flow and the end of this story. Ya, the reason why we talk about yin and yang before is to make understand the next stories. I will give you two stories, life stories.

Story 1

There’s an actor, let say his name’s Mike, he is handsome, rich, popular, smart and talented. Everyone like him, even some people want to be like him. He has a lots of fans, his life is amazing, but he’s not happy, he has a lots of enemies. Why he has a lots of enemies? Ya, this case make us remember about the tree analogy, the taller the tree grows, the more winds come. Let’s continue with second story.

Story 2

There’s a programmer, let say his name’s Steve, he is also handsome, rich, popular, smart and talented. He had a lots of achievements, his life is amazing too, but he’s not happy, he feel alone and he feel doesn’t one care about him. The question is why he feel like that?

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

Let’s talk about the similar these guys. They have a lots of similar, like they are handsome, rich, popular, smart and talented. Then one more thing, they feel unhappy. So, let’s think about it, how to make them happy again? What they should do to make them happy? That’s big question that we need to figure out. For Mike problem, do he need to kick out all his enemies? then is the problem will be solved? Then for Steve, do he need to find people to be his friend? then is the problem will be solved too?

The Root Cause

Maybe some of you will give the advices like for Mike, he need to don’t think about his enemies, his life will better without thinking about it. Then for Steve, he need to hanging out with friends and spend his time with them so his life will better and not feel alone again. Hmm, these is good advice actually, but this is not best solutions, whenever Mike will got enemies and Steve will feel alone again. So, we need to fix the root cause. So that they can reduce the problem and become more happy. All problems has the root cause, and we need to know what’s their root cause. Let’s do brainstorming again, for Mike case, the root cause is his status, the enemies will reduce if his status is not an actor. But this is not the solution, we should face the problem, do not escape the problem. So what he should do? He just need to keep being good man and try his enemy become his friend, started from being nice to them. You might think that this is bullshit, but believe it or not, they have own reason why they didn’t like him. The big problem is because they didn’t know his as well, and then they become jealous with his achievements and then they become the enemy. If we’re imagine become mike, we need to imagine become his enemies too. Like Mike need to think about why they hate me? What’s the problem? Did I made a mistake? Then mike should try to solve this, by make them become his friend. Then his life become more happy and he can know how to solve this problem in the next future. It’s not about me, It’s about us. This quote that good for this case.

Photo by Zachary Nelson on Unsplash

Then how about Steve? his root cause is his job. Why? because he just focus on his job only, he forgot to become human sociality. He need to make his work and life balance. Whenever he still not balance, he keep feel alone even he has a lots of friends. This is wrong if he think that doesn’t one care about him, he need to think about what’s the problem with him, why he feel alone? what’s wrong with him? not what’s wrong with this universe. So as long as he can manage his time for work and play, he can become more happy and he never feel alone again.

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

That’s the two side of life. We can live peacefully and happy if we try to understand the two side of life. We need to think that everything has positive and negative side. After that we can figure out how to live with these sides. As long as we live in this earth, we will has two sides. That’s why the goal of this article is to remind us that we can live so peacefully and happy with life problem that we faced, also we can be more wise in dealing with everything, then we can think that lenka’s song Trouble is a friend is more make sense. Cheers! Long live and posper!

Thank You for reading, have a nice day! :)

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Yefta Andrea

I shared something that I wish could give positive impacts to people. IG: @yeftaandrea