17) The mistakes of a great and good man are like eclipses of the sun and moon; his failing is seen by one and all, and when he repairs it, all look at him in awe.
I just chuckled as I remembered my first reaction to reading this when I was younger – my initial response to this entry was “What the…?” with a little more of an explicit choice of nouns to complete the sentiment. Considering that my mid-teenage years were some of my more cynical when it came to human nature. Considering that high school is not a pleasant time and teenagers are not known to be very merciful when it comes to, well, going against social conformity.
If someone holds a moral stance that goes against the social norm, this apparent faux pas was essentially social suicide. When this person made a mistake, yes it was seen by one and all – and if it wasn’t, it was surely promulgated as fast as the rumour mill could mulch it. When they fixed it though, I don’t believe that many teens outside of a Hollywood screenplay would actually “look at him in awe”, but instead would subscribe to the idea that people are only known by their worst moment… and make sure that these moments are known far and wide…
Again, as I got older and reviewed these sayings over time, I realized one of the potential intents of this particular one: Eclipses of the sun and moon are rare, and thus so are the mistakes of a great and good man… The secondary level here is that these mistakes are clearly visible; everyone sees them – in part because society holds these people in such high regard. (Secretly, I would argue, they are hoping for these people to fail… but that’s lingering cynicism from the aforementioned teenage years.)
Ultimately, the highest level of interpretation (in my opinion) is that the “great and good man” repairs their mistakes… This pearl of wisdom comes from – you guessed it – Confucius, and consequently is rooted in those virtues (which, if this is your first visit to HarmonyBudo.com or just need a little reminder, you can find here.)
And on a secondary note, I believe that this also assumes that they take responsibility for those very same mistakes, which is something that doesn’t seem to happen very much anymore in North American societies… quite the opposite in fact. For the most part, anyone who is involved in an incident is quick to blame someone – anyone – else because society doesn’t teach accountability and responsibility. What are considered the “right” things to do have to be legislated and codified in law, which is problematic – when you have to legislate what is right, just and moral, then it is quite possible that your society has failed…
It may be socially taboo to be virtuous and moral, but when things do go south, people take notice of these people’s lives – and especially take notice of the virtuous person who fixes their issues…
As Master Funakoshi said – “Karate-do is not only the acquisition of certain defensive skills but also the mastering of the art of being a good and honest member of society”
