Inventive tolerance!

Let me tell you a story of how i almost became fatherless. A very long time ago, my father decided to go on to subsistence farming while his friend went into civil service. His friend got to save up some amounts of money to buy few machines with which he used as leverage for cultivating some plots of land that he acquired. My father who was so set in his ways could not see the advantages resident in the ideas and the belief systems of other people. He decided to stick to his guns and go with the old system of farming. His method was not wrong but he would rather advocate for Animal rights than use a Donkey to plough his farm. In so doing, innovation passed him by. He just refused to take advantage of leverages. He did all the work alone. He was busy growing, hauling, harvesting, processing and storing on hectares of land. As he continued; to his old age; he was tired and aging. Yet he stayed in denial. He let innovation passed him by. He could not see the importance of justifiably using the advantages of science and technology to his greater good. He went into self exploitation. He sold his Organic produce at the lowest possible rate because he could not stand the guilt that may come from selling higher than the market price.

I know you want to know what happened to him. Did he go bankrupt? Was he able to pull it through with his beliefs? Well, after several years of rigidity? A day came when my father was very ill. Somehow he could not work on his farm. However, the life of his farm depended on him. He had to force himself to the field. While he was pushing his limits to get things going; he fell so badly. He was working alone. I heard his groan from afar. I ran out of the barn. Little boy who could hardly carry himself; I cried: "Papa! What happened to you?" Poor me; i had to lift his arm here and there before i realized that he was too heavy for me to carry. I was the only one around on the farm that day. In the barn was this old hunting whistle. I blew it and his friend heard from afar. He ran to our aid. His friend helped him to the Hospital. He drove him down in the Tractor, which my father had vowed never to use for farming. Since he usually criticized the conventional system of farming. Somehow, we had no money to pay for his hospital bills. This civil servant friend whom my father had crucified for practicing conventional farming paid from his own farming income.
Some people are like my father who believes in alternative farming system. They won't take other conflicting ideas and examine them critically and seek to pick the good side in opposing paradigms. The only closer look they give to things is to judge with their nose raised against something strange, something new, or something different from what they used to.
It takes tolerance to embrace opposing perspectives. It takes maturity to give a cursory look; to see the difference and still love the people who will never agree with us. I am still learning too. It is hard. But until we get there; we have not fulfilled the law of Christ that commanded us to love our neighbor like ourselves. We have not embrace the discipline of tolerance. Until we do that. We cannot reach a level of intelligence in our innovation experiences with which we can see innovation ahead and take advantage of it. Instead of crucifying something why not let’s take a pause, take a deep breath; look closer for whatever good lies in this “weird idea” rather than trash can or write it off? Why not recycle it. Although, this story is an analogy of how ideas were never scrutinized long enough. It was not an exact story of my life but I hope you’ve learnt from it?