Courage is Contagious

Right now, the United States is being pulled in many different directions, with intolerance, hatred, and prejudice, and fear fueling the dialogue. Whether or not we are in the fray or we have sidestepped provocation, we are seeing our government and our citizens divided in ways we have never dealt with before, at least on this level. What really hurts is to see our country and our democracy hurt by this infighting and this refusal to even think of giving someone else half a chance to speak his mind. And so discourse is cut off again…before it can even draw its first breath. Telling the truth, something that was certainly emphasized as I was growing up, seems to have been thrown out with the bathwater, and we are left to puzzle our way through the lies, half-truths, and deceptions the best way we know, and are still left with questions. A few brave souls have stood forth and told their truth, some doing so in the face of defying their employer, their family, or their country. Those that would have them tell ‘a convenient truth’ that reinforces a particular point, but often has little to do with fact, react with criticism and worse consequences for those brave enough to speak. And these people are in the majority. It is far easier to simply agree with what is already being said, and to move on with life. 

As children, we hear Hans Christian Andersen’s story ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’ about the weavers who promise the emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those who are unfit, stupid, or incompetent. The reality is that they make no clothes at all, but no one dares say they do not see them for fear of being seen as stupid. Finally, a small child cries out, ‘But he isn’t wearing anything at all!’ We are, of course, not seeing any new clothes right now, but the fear of retribution has made everyone nervous about calling out what is obvious to everyone. It takes only one person, however, to step up and speak or act to encourage others to do the same. Rosa Parks became an unwitting activist in the Civil Rights movement for her action leading to the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott. Her decision to act, refusing to go to the back of the bus, was prompted by fatigue at the end of her work day. Deciding to refuse, and the events that followed, served as a model for others to tell their truth in dismantling an unfair system and aiding social progress. Throughout world history, these brave people, from Jesus Christ to Joan of Arc to Mahatma Gandhi, and countless others, have said and done ‘the right thing’ at the time, facing and enduring threats, violence, and death, because their actions served to reveal that truth is the only way. As humans, we can only live life forwards, but can only understand it backwards, to paraphrase Kierkegaard, and history shows us what we gained from these people who were examples of what to do and who showed true courage when the stakes were high.

The example of Rosa Parks and others throughout history, provide a scared, divided group of people with a model of behavior they could emulate, because they had seen it done. Yes, they had seen it done by one person, a trailblazer, but a person with whom they could identify with, and whose actions they could imitate, now perhaps more bravely than they could before they saw ‘the impossible’ done. We are now seeing these brave individuals come out of the shadows, taking action, and showing us that what we, too, can cause things to happen. We look up to the trailblazers, the brave ones, who faced their challenge, afraid, but still determined, because it was the right thing to do. Seeing courage in the face of adversity is felt deeply, and gives us strength to do things, ignore our doubts and fears, and move to make our world a better place. Such actions are, fortunately, contagious.