THE DECISION MAKER

In the movie Flash of Genius, Robert Kearns, the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper, singlehandedly takes on Ford Motor Company, claiming it has stolen his invention. Despite urging by family and friends, Kearns rejects several settlement offers from the auto company because it will not acknowledge the wiper was his invention. The legal battle lasts thirteen tortuous years, during which Kearns loses his marriage, alienates his six children (they ultimately reconcile) and endures a nervous breakdown . Representing himself at trial, Kearns wins the lawsuit, is acknowledged as the inventor of the wiper by the jury (Ford does not make that acknowledgement) and is awarded $10 million.

Triumph or Tragedy? Victory or Defeat? Good Fortune or Disaster?

Or all of them?

Viewers of the movie will debate whether Kearns won or lost...did he make the right decision to fight his fight. Most, I think, would say that the millions and millions of dollars he ultimately received did not compensate for the 13-year ravaging ordeal and all its consequences to him and his family. Especially since he was early on offered a substantial sum of one million dollars by Ford to drop his lawsuit. Kearns' rejection of that offer because it did not include a public statement by Ford that recognized him as the inventor, would likely seem to many to be an act of stubborness, even stupidity.

Or did Kearns win? His motives were pure. He wanted truth to prevail and his achievement to be confirmed. He wanted justice. He had integrity. He was willing to live, and die, by the principles he believed in. He refused to compromise them for the sake of convenience or for other values (his family, his marriage, his friendships). Those were the virtues he had taught his children.

Too high a price to pay for winning? The answer to that question for Kearns lay within his spirit, as my answer is found within my spirit and your answer within yours. For it is within our private spiritual realm that there is a confluence of our total being--our values and virtues, our sense of life, our hopes and dreams and wishes and fears, our likes and dislikes, prejudices and priorities, and more. It is there that the core of me, the heart of me, the soul of me, can be found. exists. Decisions that are true to and in harmony with my inner soul and keep it pristiine in serenity and beauty are the right oness for me to make.

In his poem "If," Rudyard Kipling wrote:

"If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;

,,,you'll be a man, my son.

Why imposters? What I think Kipling meant was that earthly triumphs and disasters are not the measure of a man (or woman) nor the determinants, as society projects them to be, of the quality of your life, or your happiness, or your sense of self worth. Those rewards must be sought and are to be found elsewhere.

Kearns won in his spiritual realm. Would his decision have won in yours?