Fresh Courage Take

 My dog, Daisy, does not deal well with the unexpected. Garbage can on the sidewalk instead of the curb? She barks at it! A neighbor who she's seen many times before wears a new hat? Barking time! A construction vehicle is parked at the end of the street we walk down? She goes crazy! Daisy is not the smartest dog (yet also not the dumbest), but she barks at these perceived threats as a way of warning me and everyone else about them. She barks because she doesn't really know what else to do when confronted with a new situation. Now, I can't really explain to her that she doesn't need to fear these things, because I don't speak Dog. If I did, I could convince her to stop barking at every mail or UPS truck that drives past our front window.

So far, the best way of dealing with it is to tell Daisy in a soothing voice, "it's going to be okay." Then, I let her approach the garbage can/stationary vehicle/person and let her sniff and see it up close. She is usually able to determine that this person or thing is not a threat to her (except in the case of trucks, which she still views as mortal enemies for some reason). 

In some ways I am not unlike Daisy. I also don't do well with change. My life is pretty safe and comfortable, and I don't really go out of my way to step outside my comfort zone. Drastic change takes courage, and I lack either the willpower or strength to strike out bravely into the unknown. 

In the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird," the character Atticus Finch defines courage as "...when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what." That isn't a quality I really find in myself. What is the source of that type of courage, and how do I get me some of that?

The title of this post is taken from the Mormon hymn "Come, Come, Ye Saints," which was written by Mormon poet William Clayton. The third verse reads, in part: "Gird up your loins, fresh courage take./Our God will never us forsake." Clayton wrote the poem in Winter Quarters, Nebraska, before he set out as part of the first group of saints to head to the Salt Lake Valley. Along the way, he was assigned to chart the progress of the company and measure distances, partially in order to help the thousands of others who would also be making the journey. Initially, he counted the revolutions of the wheel by hand and used the wheel's circumference to measure distances. Eventually, with the help of others, Clayton invented a wagon odometer that would number the wheel revolutions.

The courage of the pioneers was measured one step or one wagon wheel revolution at a time. They just kept moving forward (in some ways, they didn't really have a choice). And really, the only way to take that fresh courage that we each need is to keep walking forward, one step at a time, even when we know we're licked before we begin. It reminds me of the final scene of the movie "The Martian," where Matt Damon's character is teaching a group of potential astronauts about how to survive the dangers of space: "At some point everything is going to go south on you. Everything is going to go south and you're going to say 'This is it. This is how I end.' Now you can either accept that or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math, you solve one problem. Then you solve the next one, and then the next and if you solve enough problems you get to come home."

Easter is usually associated (rightly) with hope. But this Easter, I'm wishing you courage for whatever challenges, changes, or obstacles you face. Gird up your loins, fresh courage take! Keep walking forward. Maybe I can do the same.

The Underrated Virtue of Duty

There is one very grumpy lady who I encountered on my mission, who I think of often. She would come to church with her teenage daughter, and sit on the very front row, but she was unwilling to engage with anyone. When I was new to the area, I approached her to welcome her, and she waved me off, saying "I'm only here because I promised Elder So-and-so, who baptized me, that I would come to church."

Now, I'm not saying that is the BEST reason to go to church. It's definitely not! But, as I get older, I've come to realize that being dutiful or doing something out of duty is an underrated virtue. We will all go through periods of "I'm just not feeling it." This can happen in work, relationships, and of course, church. But if we push through those periods, we can get through them, and often realize how valuable that experience or relationship is to us. 

A wise bishop once told me that his testimony wasn't some steady line that was always increasing. It zigged and zagged with a hopefully (eventual) upward trajectory. I've taken comfort in that during periods where I struggle with things. There are Sundays like today, where I go to church and even though it was a good meeting in many respects, I didn't have some amazing spiritual experience or uplifting conversation. Sometimes I struggle to feel like I belong in a church with a strong emphasis on marriage and children (I have neither, which makes me an outlier in my current congregation). 

But, wisely or unwisely, I keep showing up. Sometimes it is duty that gets me in the pews, and that's okay. I'm hopefully slightly less grumpy about it than the lady I met on my mission. Eventually it leads me to serving and loving others, which I firmly believe is the purpose of the gospel/church/religion in general.

Note: I don't judge anyone who doesn't find duty a compelling motivator for church attendance or anything else. I'm also certainly not suggesting a Gospel of Masochism where we do things as unthinking drones or drudges. But, I am suggesting that duty can get us through the "not fun" part of something that is important.

Solving (One of) The (Current) Mid-East Crisis(es)

There is a great joke in the classic Sandra Bullock movie "Miss Congeniality" (well, there are many great jokes in that movie, but this is one of my faves). All of the beauty pagent contestants are lined up to answer questions, and saying the one thing that the world needs. There is a montage of several contestants saying "world peace." Then Sandra Bullock steps up, and when asked what the world needs most, she says, "harsher penalties for parole violators...(*awkward silence*)...and world peace" - once she says "world peace" the audience claps and the announcer looks relieved that she got the "right" answer.

https://youtu.be/3st-Hai1y54?si=jL-pQdD1qRuW5pzK

The joke, of course, is that everyone knows the answer *should* be world peace. Knowing that is the easy part! The hard part, is, as ever, actually achieving word peace.

When titling this blog post, I wasn't sure if it would come off as flippantly talking about a tragic crisis. For my entire life (4 decades and counting!), there has been some ongoing crisis in the middle east. Currently, there are a bunch of terrible situations happening - Syria continues to be a hot mess, Iran continues to execute human rights protestors, and Houthi rebels are trying to take over Yemen and disrupt international shipping, to name a few.

But the crisis I want to talk about is the current chapter in the Israel/Palestine conflict. On October 7th, 2023, armed Palestinians slaughtered over 1,000 people and took hostage over 200 more. Many of those were Israeli civilians going about their daily lives. I haven't been able to watch the videos or look at pictures of many of the events, because my brain just can't comprehend the evil in killing/raping music festival attendees, shooting elderly holocaust survivors, and murdering babies. It's important to acknowledge these facts. Even if you think the Palestinian people have some legitimate beefs (and they very much do, in my opinion), we need to live in a world where we acknowledge that this attack was horrific and traumatizing. 

In response, Israeli forces have decimated the Gaza strip. It's estimated that 85% of Gazans have fled their homes, thousands of Palestinians have been killed (including far too many children), and 25% of the population is starving. Just as it is important to acknowledge the suffering inflicted on October 7th, it is important to acknowledge the fact that the Gaza strip is a perilous and horrific place right now. Just like with October 7th, I haven't been able to watch many of the pictures/videos showing the aftermath.

Despite the title of this post, I don't actually have a grand plan of how to solve this. Hamas is likely using innocent Palestinians as human shields in a densely populated area, which makes targeted Israeli strikes an impossibility. Rockets continue to fire from Palestine to Israel, making a ceasefire even more challenging and potentially one-sided if Isreal were to stop bombing Gaza.

The only truth that I can conjur up is that genocide does not justify genocide. If you believe an act is evil (and murder is evil!), you have a responsibility not to engage in it. Even if you have been wronged. I recognize that this puts a burden on victims of violence that is unfair and heartbreaking. The only way forward is to acknowledge the pain of your "enemies" - acknowledging that pain is hard. It means seeing humanity in those you have dismissed as fools, dupes, or worse. It means seeking that elusive world peace even when it seems far out of reach.

I hope to see President Biden's administration do more to pressure Israel - protecting the lives of Palestinian civilians is a moral imperative, even despite the horrific nature of the October 7th attacks.

For more on this subject, I recommend reading the wise sermons of Dr. Martin Luther King, who taught so eloquently of the destructive power of hate and the creative transformation of love.