20 Jul Dealing with opposition

Life is full of opposition. Opposition from others who disagree with you, opposition from family and friends who don’t believe in you and even opposition from yourself when you don’t have confidence in your own abilities.

I’ve heard it said that there will never be innovation or revolution if there is no opposition.

Opposition is exactly what we see in the world, our country and most poigniently at the moment in our state. For years, there has been huge controversy over whether or not a new telescope should be built on Mauna Kea, on Hawaii Island. It’s acronym “TMT” which stands for Thirty Meter Telescope is almost like a swear word these days with Hawaiians, locals and activists. Huge national news outlets like Washington Post, Fox News and even presidential candidate Bernie Sanders is chiming in on social media about what is going on in our island state.

Mauna Kea at Midnight ©Brad Watanabe

For years now, there has been a lot of opposition from the Hawaiian (ethnicity) and Hawaii (residents) community regarding whether or not a new, large telescope should be built on the sacred lands of their ancestors who once worshipped there and today is still the home of one of the most important deities in all of Hawaiian culture: Pele.

There are tons of reasons and rhetoric from both sides of the debate speaking their mind about the matter, and fr almost a week, there have been protestors camped out at the base of Mauna Kea, blocking construction crews and equipment from making their accent up the mountain. It is an issue that is receiving a bunch of global publicity but in some ways I think that the audience is riled up almost like a crowd ready to watch an MMA fight. People are anxiously waiting to see if a battle will commence or if resolution will be calm and collaborative.

Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa Sunset ©Brad Watanabe

Similar to what happens during elections or any other large news-worthy event, the TMT protest is dominating much of Hawaii residents social media feeds and I think much to the mass general public is losing interest in “the fight”… they just want to fast forward to the final episode and find out the results.

Though this is a large statewide display of opposition, there is also a opposition that we deal with in life everyday. Clients who we have creative disagreements with, traffic on the freeway that is in opposition to us arriving at our final destination quicker, family disagreements that lead to arguments or discomfort. And we have to learn how to deal with opposition big or small.

How do you deal with opposition? Are you proactive or passive about it? Do you cave to the pressures of opposition? Or do you fight for what you believe in? I think we learn a lot about ourselves in the most difficult and dark times of opposition.