Carys Comma

Be Strong.

I tell you and your brother that all the time. Usually, somebody is crying or so frustrated with circumstances that it seems like the only way to react. I often fear that I sound like a jerk more than a loving father. Maybe I am both. What I am trying to say to you guys is that the struggles in life are opportunities for us to be strong. During such times we face a stark and brutal choice: we can overcome the injustice or let the injustice overcome us.

The world around us is a bit mixed up about strength. The world spends a lot of time trying to implode and inflict harm. Why? Because we that populate this planet are full of ambition, greed, and worse. So, as an expression of our inner values, we declare the person most apt to kick the crap out of somebody else to be the stronger.

There is a dark honesty toward submitting to the most violent among us. Unfortunately, it makes for a terrible place to live.

There is another way - a better way. There is a deeper and better strength. The deeper strength belongs to the woman who can overcome hatred, to a person who can reconcile. The deepest strength resides in the person who can stand true to their values without violating them at the same time.

But, a word of caution. In our messed up world, the deepest strength is sometimes thought of as weak.

My daughter, I hope you can remember that strength - true strength - is not a measurement of our muscle mass or our ability to endure. Instead, true strength is the measurement of our moral fiber. True strength is a living pronouncement of how dedicated we are to what is right and good.

I so want you to be strong, even if that makes you weak.



Dada

image source: DeviantArt