“If you are lucky enough to find a way of life you love, you have to find the courage to live it.” John Irving
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” Anais Nin
“The secret to happiness is freedom . . . . . and the secret to freedom is courage.” Thucydides
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” T.S. Eliot
For the past several years, I have woken up one morning each week in anticipation of another brilliant essay from New York Time’s columnist Roger Cohen. Sadly, this morning the light of seeing another article turned dark when I learned that he was writing his last column and moving to Paris as the NYT bureau chief. I can’t say that I blame him. If I had his talent, resources, connections, and capabilities, Paris would certainly be an attractive option. Just as Ruth Bader Ginsburg earned the right to stay on the Supreme Court until her untimely death, Roger Cohen has earned the right to move wherever he wants. I will miss him though.
Ruth and Roger are exemplars of courage. They did the work and told the truth. They took on established traditions and spoke boldly from their open hearts, their seasoned souls, and well-trained minds. They were courageous in their words and actions.
Several books have been written about courage. Two of the most famous are John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage and Stephen Crane’s, The Red Badge of Courage.
In Profiles, JFK argues for the significance of political courage in American history. Kennedy shares the stories of eight senators who exhibited great courage over the course of our democratic experiment. He highlights how each senator confronted the challenges of their respective eras and did what they could to make a difference.
In Red Badge, Stephen Crane tells the story of Henry Fleming, a teenager who enlists in the Union Army in the hopes of fulfilling his dreams of glory. Unfortunately for Fleming, the reality of his decision to join the Army sets in while he awaits his first battle. As doubt and fear creep into his mind, he bolts from the field after blindly firing a blaze of bullets into the blurry haze of battle without ever seeing the enemy. Fortunately, I guess, he manages to find his way back to the front lines where he redeems himself with extraordinary courage. Henry gave me hope that it’s possible to redeem ourselves from our instances of cowardice. Cowardly words and actions in our past don’t have to define who we may become in the future.
I’ve been reflecting lately on courage in its many forms – both public and private. Two books I just read speak eloquently to the different forms of grit, guts and grind involved in showing courage on the national stage or in the privacy of our home. The first is John Meecham’s wonderful memoire on John Lewis, His Truth is Marching On. The second is a debut novel, Shuggie Bain, by Douglas Stuart.
I always knew that John Lewis was a courageous soul, but I never appreciated how far he was willing to go to become who he grew to be. T.S. Eliot may never have heard of John Lewis, but the quote at the beginning of this post captures perfectly his life. Lewis started with nothing, risked everything, and became one of the most prominent and persuasive representatives we have ever known. I won’t recount the brutal beatings Lewis endured here, but I encourage you to read this book. What Meecham recounts in his precise prose is horrifying and inspiring at the same time. Lewis clearly expanded his life in proportion to his courage and, in so doing, expanded our lives.
While John Lewis led a very public life, Shuggie Bain endured a private hell in his hometown near Glasgow, Scotland. Stuart’s novel describes the trials and tribulations of a gay kid growing up in abject poverty with an alcoholic mother and abusive neighbors. Sadly, his experiences are all too common today. While it’s painful to hear the daily degradations that Shuggie experiences, he leaves us with the hope that new beginnings are possible even when we find ourselves in the worst conditions.
To me, all of these books come down to the courage to begin anew. Lewis served jail time, suffered physical blows, and woke up every morning with the courage and passion to persevere. Shuggie tended to his mother’s black outs, scraped out enough food to survive, survived verbal and physical assaults, and managed to find a friend who saw and accepted him for who he was and who welcomed him into her life. While every day may seem like an abundance of woe, some people are still able to nurture the seeds of possibility and find the courage to keep on going.
Courage comes in many forms. For example, I admire people who look their addictions in the eye every morning and stare them down. There is a reason alcoholics live their life a day at a time. Every morning requires the courage to weave your way through the demons that wait for a chance to derail you and the commitment to create some beauty and harmony in your life.
My Vietnam buddy, Artie Vipperla, has captured this idea most profoundly. His challenge is for us to live our lives as “You Newing You.” Unpacking that short mantra requires way more than I can cover in this post, but I encourage you to read his newly released e-book, Cosmolving.
https://artievipperla.medium.com/cosmolving-105d86701221 In short, we can find beauty in every moment if we have the courage to free ourselves from the numbing, dumbing ruts we allow ourselves to fall into.
I have been lucky enough to find a way of life I love. It took some courage to free myself from the golden handcuffs of Corporate America, but the risks were worth it. I’ve been able to set my own agenda, spend time with my family, read Harry Potter to my grand-kids and pursue my passions.
On the other hand, I have definitely not been courageous in every aspect of my life. I have been too silent and complicit in response to the injustices I see every day. I have retreated into my privileged world and avoided the “good trouble” that John Lewis espoused. I often can’t find enough love in my heart to overcome the hatred that wells up in me when I turn on the news or read the paper. And now I have to do it without Roger Cohen. Ugh.
I believe these next few decades will require a special kind of courage. We are facing a persistent pandemic, fuming flames of racial injustice, ever-widening economic inequalities, a rapidly deteriorating environment, and destructive divides that could erupt into violence at any moment. And, in the face of all that, we have lost some of our strongest voices: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, John Lewis, Leonard Cohen and on and on.
This daunting list of challenges may make it difficult to find the confidence required to build a better future. In my experience, people need to believe that change is possible before they are able to summon up the courage and commitment to fight the fight over a long period of time. Confidence fuels courage. Without that fuel it’s very hard to sustain the courage to continue.
We all need to step up, speak up, and seek out new voices, values, and visions. We need to evolve our consciousness, devolve our violence, and “cosmolve” our spirits. We need to develop the confidence that constructive change in possible. We need to start anew each day with the commitment and courage our exemplars have demonstrated for us. May it be so.
Beautifully written Ricky! Thank you!