Balance and Specialization

The Tower of Pisa has been famous for centuries because it has stood so long while leaning some sixteen feet or so off center. In this it is an exception – for most towers that have leaned that far have fallen. Balance in life is one of the essentials of safety, of happiness, and of wholeness. Lack of balance has been the cause of more misery and mistakes than men can calculate. By the very physical necessities of life, by the fact that we must be fed and clothed and sheltered, many, if not most of us, are largely concerned with physical factors. Our reading, our thinking, our living are largely along these lines. Furthermore, we tend to specialize in certain pursuits. This is a day of specialization, and to “succeed” it seems that a man must know much more about some things than he knows about others. He must be able to do some things much better than he is able to do others. But specialization can be carried to a dangerous degree, and can lead to an educated illiteracy – an illiteracy which knows some things well and other things too little – an illiteracy that could find itself far out on narrow little lines. There are many tangents that could take us far from truth as well as those that could take us toward it, and we all need to tempter our thinking and to keep a balance in every attitude and activity – with time and place for prayer, for acquaintance with the timeless truths of scripture, and thoughtfulness for the great eternal intangibles as well as for the things that we can touch. Tangibles we cannot take with us, but intelligence and love and spiritual qualities we can. And no matter what a person’s particular pursuit, he should be aware of the need for a wholeness of life, the need for being well balanced.