Dare to be Compassionate

Courage

“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.”
Soren Kierkegaard

“To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see everyday, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.”
Theodore H. White

We live in contentious times. I'm sure humans have been saying that for thousands of years. My own family was severed by the Civil War, and prior to that, being of Irish heritage, by the enormous migration brought on by the potato famine. But it seems today that it is not war or distance that separates families, but ideology. I don't know anyone whose family has not been touched by the political fractiousness of this time. We let our ideological and social expectations cut us off from one another in a way that feels different from past times. And when we confront one another about these differences, we don't approach it from a place of compassion and a desire to understand. Rather, we go for the jugular—we intend to draw blood. I have been as guilty of this as anyone.

In my own life, when I have failed to stand up for what I believe to be true, it has been because I did not want to risk rejection. I am often guilty of not getting involved in something that might require more energy than I’m willing to give it, even when it cries out for a moral response. I could be one of the people Martin Luther King, Jr. referred to when he said that the appalling silence of good people is the greatest tragedy of our time. At one time or another we have all been guilty of moral cowardice. But there is a vast landscape between moral cowardice and preemptive blood-letting. We may want to explore this geography.

With summer coming, with family vacations and gatherings on the horizon, we may want to decide in advance what is most important to us—is it harmony, or is it to have the last word? Can we practice open-mindedness? Can we tolerate being challenged without going for the most accessible blood vessel? Can we speak our truth without denigrating each other's beliefs? Do we dare to be both honest and compassionate? Do we have the courage to speak from love instead of anger?

In the Spirit,
Jane