Courage meets the Bulldozer

Courage – from the Latin cor, meaning heart; it’s original use suggests: to stand by one’s core, one’s center

Bulldoze – to demolish

Too many months have unfolded in ways I expect once-nurtured land feels when it’s overtaken by an out-of-control bulldozer, stuck in Drive, and powered by a reckless, angry driver. I live in that land . . . hearing the rumbling of an undisciplined machine all around me, watching the destruction it inflicts without caution or discretion.

Mark Nepo, in “Finding Inner Courage” writes: “The courage we all admire – where ordinary people summon unexpected strength to run into burning buildings or to stand up to tyrants, whether an abusive father or an abusive leader, this inspiring and mysterious impulse to rise and meet a dangerous situation, which Hemingway referred to as grace under pressure – grows from another kind of courage: inner courage.”

Inner courage is not about bluster or bravado. Instead it’s about the resilience to muster the mental and emotional strength to honestly address challenges within us. It means making the choice to do the work necessary to move beyond past wounds, to face our demons, to choose compassion over retribution, kindness over self-interest, and love over fear . . . to overcome and heal so we can treat others in ways we want to be treated. The bravery in those internal choices makes possible the outer courageous actions that encourage and give us hope.

And, when inner courage is missing? Look for suspicion, cynicism, and retaliation to step up.

Author, Nepo – using writer/director Menno Meyjes’ ideas about Hitler as his example – points out that history teaches us when someone demonstrates the lack of inner courage to face difficult experiences, he can spiral into a pattern of vengeance (revenge, retaliation). Then, choices are made using emotional cowardice, envy, frustration, self-pity, and past, personal offenses. When unchecked, vengeance can move into a deeper form of violence, into something we name evil.

Key learnings? Those in charge of bulldozers need to display inner courage before they get the keys to the machinery. If not, we all find ourselves living within the choices of others where power trumps compassion, self-righteousness trumps empathy, and fear trumps love . . . and the bulldozer continues to wreak havoc on the land and its people.

More than just an approach to living within a chaotic world, courage is a way of life. Identifying our core, our center, and living within and through its strength, we’re empowered to compassionately fight for goodness, to join with others in creating something better for ourselves and each other, to continue resisting any power that mobilizes vengeance to plow under basic human rights and treasured democratic values. It’s well worth the work . . . yes?

In hope,

Jane