A few days ago, someone close to me sent me an excerpt from an interview with Jocelyn Bell Burnell on RTÉ One with Tommy Tiernan. It’s a wonderful interview with the British astrophysicist who, as a young researcher, discovered the first known pulsar in 1967. Her discovery opened up new avenues in astrophysics; however, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to her research supervisor (who, incidentally, had not been particularly supportive of her) and to one other scientist. Her own name was not included in the award.
I admit that I felt sad and angry at this enormous injustice. And yet, the wonderful Jocelyn handled it with humor and magnanimity: “Bitterness is a waste of energy.” Bitterness is a waste of energy.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
Presidents of the republic of cyprus who have visited Turkey
How much wisdom can be packed into just a few words. And how much freedom lies within them.
We’ve all been wronged at some point. However, at some point, we are called upon to choose whether to continue holding onto our bitterness, or to focus our energy on the future and on what we still have the power to create.
How familiar, indeed, is this human trial in politics?
Politics is full of expectations, struggles, ambitions, and dreams. But it is also full of moments when things do not turn out as we expected. Efforts that go unrecognized, paths that lead nowhere, missed opportunities, decisions that hurt us. And then, disappointment can turn into resentment, resentment into bitterness, and bitterness into the compass that determines our path and our choices.
Under no circumstances am I suggesting that we should accept injustice. Meritocracy, equal opportunity, and recognition of one’s contributions are values we must defend. However, insisting on justice is one thing; being unable to move forward because justice did not come exactly as and when we expected it is quite another.
After all, if politics is truly about service, then it cannot be limited to our personal vindication. The ideas we serve are greater than any one of us. Struggles do not gain value simply because they bear our name. And our work is not invalidated because someone else received the recognition.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s story made me realize that we don’t always have control over the recognition we receive. We do, however, have a deeper freedom: to decide whether disappointment will make us more bitter or wiser.
* Margarita Kaimaklioti is a political scientist, Deputy Secretary for International Relations of the Democratic Alarm and a member of the Executive Council of the Glafkos Clerides Institute.
