Danger + Opportunity

By Shana Ogren

While working as a labor union organizer for Service Employees International Union (SEIU), I noticed one day that another organizer had posted a Chinese word in large print on the door of the union hall:

This is the Chinese word for "crisis."  It includes two characters; one representing "danger" and the other representing "opportunity."  The meaning of "crisis" in Chinese is literally "danger" plus "opportunity."  The organizer had posted this word the week that we were preparing childcare center employees for their union election—a chance for employees to vote for whether or not they want to establish a labor union for themselves.

The organizer explained to us, "The crisis is that these teachers have no healthcare provided for themselves or their own children.  The crisis is that these teachers do not make enough money to feed themselves or their family.  And now, we are addressing this crisis through a union election.  This is the crucial point.  Employees may vote 'No' for themselves, and continue to face the danger they face each day to survive with no health insurance and not enough food.  Or, employees can vote 'Yes' for themselves, and finally get an opportunity to change that."

Does crisis always provide an opportunity?  Will an opportunity make a danger worth having?  Or is it just luck to stumble upon an opportunity in a time of danger?  Spiritually, what is the meaning behind a crisis?  If we face danger and opportunity combined, is that the equivalent of god closing one door and opening another?

As my stepmom, Sandee, prepared for the death that cancer brought her, she started using often her own definition of the Chinese word for "crisis."  She would search, and encourage me to search, for what she called the "joy in the shit sandwich."  I like her definition. 

Seeing a bright side doesn’t mean that the shitty cup is worth being shitty.  But, shit is shit.  My stepmom, Sandee, attempted to accept the shit of death.  And she didn't want to just accept it—she wanted to find something, somehow!, joyful in its midst.  What courage!

Ball Python Image on Banner by Richard Chambers