The importance of being Unreasonable?

I was reading the Agenda given to us by ButterBean's school and came across the following very interesting and appropriate quote:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

-- George Bernard Shaw

How true is that? I find this particularly fitting as I am constantly adapting the world in Jordan to myself :). Well, not exactly, but I do refuse to make myself over in the image of a Jordanian wife and mom, much to the dismay of many, I am certain. And, I have known for years that I am unreasonable. So, I'll just consider myself progressive from now on, shall I?

Seriously though, I think this quote expresses exactly the quandary many people returning to Jordan after years abroad face. They are thought of as (and criticized for being) unreasonable. They are told in quite dismissive terms that the reason you do this or that and think this or that is because you just came back. As if that's a valid reason for ignoring things that need improvement and refusing to engage in self-criticism.

As an example, both El 3atal and I are pretty unreasonable about refusing to yield right of way to people driving the wrong way on one-way streets. Coming into our neighborhood is a one-way street down which many people seem ultimately comfortable driving illegally. Well, that's fine (I wish, however, they'd choose an activity likely only to kill themselves, rather than law-abiding people as well). However, when I come into the street, I drive right down the middle. And my car is not small. Not at all. Since cars are always parked on at least one side of the street, someone will have to go around. Now, personally, I don't care if the open space is on my side of the road or theirs, I don't move. If they want to drive illegally, they will simply have to make all of the effort. If cars are parked on both sides, they'll simply have to back up... I can assure you, especially the women drivers who do this get really pissed at me. Now, I see that the reasonable thing to do would be to simply be "nice" and move out of their way and such. But, then we'd see no progress, now would we. I figure every time I make it take longer for them to get out than it would have if they simply drove legally, one person will start to "get" it. In fact, I there are some folks in the area that see me coming and just give up and make the turn :). I guess they've gone up against me before.

And, I guess, as a people Americans may tend to be unreasonable. Maybe that's a national failing (or is it a virtue?). In fact, I'm quite certain it's a bit of both. We also tend to believe in the power of one little person. I really CAN change the world. I was raised believing it and still do, to this day. A reasonable person would have had this beat out of them MANY years ago. Yet, I go on believing. It reminds of that story about the starfish. You know that one? Here it is:

A man is walking along the beach and finds a girl tossing a starfish into the sea. Now, the beach is covered with, literally thousands of starfish. The man says to the girl, "Why are you doing that? With all of these starfish, you can't possibly make a difference." She replies, "Oh, but I did - to that one." Ah, and what an unreasonable viewpoint. Progress is painful, but necessary I think.

Happy unreasonableness!