DESTRUCTIVE GENTLENESS
So practical and
understandable, the building of armies, the toughening of the children.
How inept, weak,
and incompetent I feel in comparison to the guys who are tough, the
professionals who are accomplished, the heroes who have survived.
Is their path
superior? Is it the better path to study
martial arts, to prioritize toughness and combat skills?
Does gentleness
have a place anywhere?
Is gentleness
counterproductive?
Is gentleness
destructive?
Is gentleness so
impractical, so irrelevant, so pointless that we would be better off relegating
it to a wish-list but not wasting precious life on trying to practice it,
unless with our own children in the safety of our well defended home?
We live in a world
of walls.
We surround ourselves with walls out of
necessity.
How appealing it
is, that image of security and privacy!
How imprisoning
that is, that image of security and privacy.
What place
gentleness and vulnerability in this world?
Gentleness and
vulnerability appear only in brief flashes in scriptures and texts, and are for
the most part carefully avoided in creeds and dogma.
We, of whatever
religion, recite our beliefs, claiming we believe in this or that and such or
the other, delightful intellectual constructs for our minds. But seldom do our recitals of beliefs about
theology and eschatology or our mantras of methods for enlightenment and
transcendence invoke the word “gentleness”.
Our media, our
sports, and our heroes hardly hammer home admonitions to practice gentleness.
For a politician
“gentleness” might be misinterpreted as weakness.
Gentleness is far
too impractical, and mainly, far too dangerous, to ever survive as a political
position or religious dictate, much less as a way of life.
So, the world
continues as it always has, practical and pragmatic, violent and tragic.
Those we would
follow, cheer, and vote for must have big muscles or expansive egos, not big
hearts and expansive souls.
Gentleness remains
unencouraged and unnoticed.
Yet we are always
grateful when we are the recipient of it.
Its salt in the cauldron of humanity keeps the world from devolving into
even worse violence and brutality. With
no rewards for it, no hall-of-fame for it, no high titles for it, and no job
openings for it, gentleness avoids spotlights and awards - quietly laying its
foundations for lives and growth and healing in even the midst of the clash and
combat of this world, gentleness quietly revealing the real meaning of strength
and courage.
Copyright 2025 Don Ray. Please share.
