Ridiculous Courage

One willing heart can’t stop a war.

One willing heart can’t feed all the hungry.

And sometimes, daunted by a task too big,

I tell myself what’s the use of trying?

But today, the invitation is clear:

to be ridiculously courageous in love.

 

                                                                     Rosemerry Trommer

 

 

There is a little bit of this wild exuberance inside each of us. The issue is unleashing it. Letting it go, is like being willing to bleed. A heart sometimes has to weep. Tears and blood are artifacts of being open. They mark the territory of passion and healing. They express the nature of compassion, heartbreak, and wild unselfconscious love. Love that is blinded, by being crazed with connection. That kind of love grows, when it flows out into hurt places.

 

Rosemerry is a good poetess, I recommend her. In this case, she is addressing a heart ache I hear everywhere, but especially from the old. It comes in the form of a question. What can I do to minimize the damage being done by the war in Ukraine, the polarization taking place in our politics, the pandemic, inequality, and the warming of our planet? 

 

It is our fate to live in this dangerous and tumultuous time. How do we respond to it?

 

This is an unprecedented era. None of our ancestors ever faced this kind of existential uncertainty. Sure, there were animal powers to fear, and wars which defined our history, famines and droughts, but never before now, have our actions become so dangerous, that we ourselves are the greatest fear we face. In so many ways, we know we humans are culpable for great uncertainty. Can we survive ourselves?

 

This is an open question. The jury is still out. Some unforeseen development may give us more time. It may be too late. No one knows what is going to happen, or when. Living, now incorporates this profound uncertainty. We all live with an edginess that cuts deep into our well-being, and asks us to be human in unimaginable ways.

 

The Earth is in a spin. Human culture is at risk. Evolution is pressing. All of this is happening way beyond the reach of we individuals. We see it, we know it, we are affected by it — and it largely is beyond each of us. Rosemerry — bless her soul — suggests that we do what we can. In a world that has spun beyond caring, let us do the ridiculous, and open our hearts and care anyway. 

 

Opening the heart now won’t change the world, but it will change you. Running up against all the insensitive blockages that we humans are capable of, hones the heart, and rouses the soul, making it possible for one to love with abandon. That ridiculous courage comes from within, and affirms itself.  

 

Maybe, that is what we are here for. To find the bit of light that still prevails, inside, and to let it shine.