The Illusion of Perfection

Perfection is wonderful, and excellence stands out among crowds. To feel confident of having perfection is what the majority of people need to feel proud and be satisfied with their lives, as to keep away from becoming a subject of travesty, either by perfection that comes from the fruits of their hard work, or received as a heritage.

Those who succeed in claiming perfection through the rise and fall of their endeavor will likely hold “the achievement” dear not to let it go so easily, as keeping something is more difficult than achieving it.

As Ukraine War broke on February 24th, 2022, countries reluctant to pick any side expressed their stance as neutral states, some of them showed goodwill to mediate between both sides, whether it was because the Eastern European conflict has pissed them off, or just because they wanted to be mediators. From the point of view of several cultural norms and religious values, such an attitude should be put forward as we are caught in the middle of an enmity. Among this neutral group was Türkiye.

In addition to its initiative to voluntary mediate Russia and Ukraine, as of June 2022 Türkiye agreed to facilitate Ukrainian and Russian grains export which should have been delivered to countries in need.

Türkiye also agreed to place five Ukrainian prisoners of war from the Azov Battalion under its authority through a formal Turkish-Russian intergovernmental agreement, following their defeat by Russian troops in the long battle of Azovstal steel factory last year.

It was unclear why Türkiye changed its attitude all of a sudden. President Recep Erdogan personally invited Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to visit his country and bring home five prisoners of war who, according to its agreement with Russia, should not breathe free until the end of Russia's military operations in Ukraine. The Russian side, of course, deplores Turkey's early summer 2023 breach of the deal.  

“Faith”

Faith is a willingness to believe in full confidently without doubt and resistance over something (or someone), which in turns affect one’s philosophy, personal view, attitude, daily behavior and actions. Faith is not just a reference for spiritual realm or a statement of one’s religiosity state, while as a term faith is rarely found in other areas of life.

Based on its history, faith has been recognized as a word since 13^th century which meant “faithfulness to a trust or a promise; loyalty to a person.” It was derived from an Old French word, feid “faith, belief, trust, confidence; pledge”, from Latin word fides “trust, faith, confidence, reliance, credence, belief.”

There is a dynamic in the original meaning of faith during the 14th century as it was used to define the assent of the mind to the truth of a statement for which there is incomplete evidence, especially in matters of belief in religious matters. Originally, faith was adopted for religious related reference, furthermore, in reference to religious persuasion. The meaning of faith was again expanded at the end of the same century as "confidence in a person or a thing with reference to truthfulness or reliability."

Given that the pursuit of perfection is not always good, our parents and predecessors advised us to put more focus on maintaining the quality of our personality or character through simple practices that don't shoot the sky by keeping promises, among other things.

Men and women make promises almost everyday to everyone; family, colleagues, spouse, superiors, debt collectors... The crush of life's difficulties that are getting worse due to various things encourages people to rush away from pressure by keep making promises without consciously being aware of their ability to fulfill them.

Based upon the above loosely based exposition on the origin and meaning of the word faith outside the religious context, it is not wrong to interpret that someone apostates as he breaks his own promise, wherein apostasy is an apocalypse; a pole marking the end and beginning of a phase as a result of the disclosure of a reality that elicits rejection of certain groups or circles. As the world seems like collapsing for whom we betray, at the same time it blooms cheerfully for those who benefit from such belie action.

The faithful accused

Believing in something is part of basic human rights that protected by international law, including the freedom to decide to change one's belief or shift one's faith from one entity to another. Human civilization will continue to exist as long as Earth does, and will always change itself to survive and be present.

Likewise, humans’ faith can fade and go elsewhere (hijrah) as humans feel they can no longer able to survive and exist due to holding on to their old beliefs. This move was made under the impulse of such a belief that had arisen after accepting the persuasion that the new place was better.

Based on one of the Ukrainian War scenes above, Türkiye believes it did the right thing by releasing five Ukrainian prisoners of war so they can return to defend their country. In order to act on the path of truth, Türkiye betrayed the trust of its best friend, Russia, and sacrificed decades of good relations. Being advised by the core values of various major religions, upholding the truth does not always have a sweet effect on all parties -- there will always be those who feel let down because of such action.

Aware of not being a "good egg", one will tend to divert the pain to other things that assumed able to relieve it. Probably he will become a devoted believer or get involved in charity activities of burning millions of dollars to atone for his "sins". Will all of these move God to forgive us? We never know, unless we leave this world and have the chance return home to tell the stories of afterlife.

As such, striving for perfection is a futile endeavor since nothing is perfect in this world. It takes a lot of both physical and mental hard work to accept without resistance the reality, while keep doing what’s best at our respective fields.