One omnipresent theme throughout this work is that accepting defeat is not the end; it’s actually just the beginning. As Tao states, one must “accept disgrace willingly and misfortune as a human condition”. By incorporating this belief, that not everyone could succeed, into one’s life, he/she could truly begin living. Making mistakes and enduring misfortunes is essentially part of being human. There’s much more to life than winning or losing, and Tao states that one shouldn’t “be concerned” these things because they blind us from seeing what’s truly important.
When one isn’t occupied with attempting to be successful and scheming ways to get to the top, he/she will begin to notice the beautiful world around them. We could vastly improve our lives by not chasing things we don’t need and caring about other people’s opinions of us; in essence “accepting being unimportant.” Tao believes there’s much more to life than being respected and acquiring materialistic goods. The poet preaches that one should “Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.” The key to happiness and being a good human being is making the effort to accept imperfection and figuring out what is truly important in life.
I agree with my colleagues opinion of what the theme of this poem is, accepting defeat is not end, it is just the beginning. This theme can be proven throughout history as many leaders proved to be successful in their lives yet failing and struggling throughout initially. George Washington, one of the many prominent figures of the American Revolution, proved to be a disastrous general as a he struggled to win battles against the British Army but nonetheless he prevailed and ultimately was successful. Abraham Lincoln also suffered through many defeats in his life but never accepted disgrace willingly and instead fought through the many struggles during his life time and ultimately succeeded. The author says “Misfortune comes from having a body.” which means no matter what happens in your life, you will suffer defeats and your true test comes on how you overcome these defeats.
I agree with you on the conclusion, which is “The key to happiness and being a good human being is making the effort to accept imperfection and figuring out what is truly important in life.” This is truly the ultimate principle of living that Tao is trying to tell us. But I still get some different opinion. At the beginning you combine the disgrace and misfortune, and make them into a whole which is the defeat. It’s reasonable to think so in daily life since disgrace and misfortune are usually the bad parts of our life. But in this poem, disgrace and misfortune are two divided things. Disgrace is the recognition from others and the misfortune is the recognition from oneself. It’s apparent that disgrace is the recognition, but why misfortune is also the recognition?
Why we think we fail? It is because we don’t recognize us succeed/