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Even the fiercest wind, in the most violent storm, eventually subsides. Stillness follows and a moment of calm comes.
What is true in the powerful elements of nature is true in the hearts of humans: The forces of fear and frustration, contempt and chaos, anger and angst, wreak havoc among the nations as well as in personal relationships. Many of these challenging experiences are simply part of the human condition. Others are forced by those seeking political position, wealth, control or power. We should take note, take heart and take action with the knowledge that, like the wind and the storm, any forced effect cannot be sustained and will eventually give way.
Most human beings are not angry by nature. We get angry, we protest, we voice opposition, but then we move on. Forced anger is simply not sustainable. And while we have been in a political hurricane for the past several years, the forced effect will not last forever. It will require citizens to cease adding to the bluster by not buying into the storm surge and tsunamis of anger-stirring rhetoric.
Modern media makes it especially easy to play to tempestuous emotions. A Twitter rant is a shortcut to stir up anger. A viral video moment can capture frustration or spread fear. A protest can, if not properly focused, lead to contempt and chaos.
I have long called out Democratic and Republican politicians, and the consultants who drive their election campaigns, for deploying what I have dubbed, “The shampoo-bottle model.”
For decades the directions printed on nearly every shampoo bottle read, “Lather. Rinse. Repeat.” The political money-making machines know that the short-term, forced-effect of the gale-force gust of divisive rhetoric is the ultimate weaponized cash cow. They “lather” people into an angry frenzy in direct mail and email solicitation, then provide people the opportunity to “rinse” off their frustration with $25 or $50 donation to the outrageous cause-of-the-day, and then, of course, “repeat.”
This is just one manifestation of forced-effect storms that many who claim the title of leader deploy today. Some, in their attempt to manipulate the message, control subordinates, drive behavior or force compliance, resort to the fierce wind of fear. Scaring or coercing people into the desired behavior through forced-effect can work for season but is never truly sustainable. The history of terrible tyrants and bad bosses has proven that.
On a personal level, individual storms beat upon hearts and strain souls. Often, we allow the fierce winds to fracture important relationships before the stillness comes. We let hurt feelings, personal pride and egocentric arrogance wreak havoc on important personal connections and the ties that bind us to loved ones. Such bitterness is a forced-effect that cannot be sustained and should be shutdown at earliest possible moment.
In her novel “The Light Between Oceans,” M.L. Stedman captures a conversation between a man who had been abused and mistreated by the people of the town and his wife, who could not understand his warmhearted forgiveness and his absolute rejection of any feelings of contempt toward the townspeople.
When his wife asked how he could show such forgiveness, the husband replies, “I choose to. I can leave myself to rot in the past, spend my time hating people for what happened, or I can forgive.”
“But it’s not that easy,” she answered.
He smiled and said, “Oh, but it is so much less exhausting. You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day. You have to keep remembering all the bad things.”
The Rev. Amos Brown, pastor of the Historic Third Baptist Church of San Francisco, once shared with me what you do when the storms of persecution, hate or contempt hit you. He said, “You can become bitter or you can become better.” Choosing to become better calms the storm and allows perspective, learning and peace to prevail.
Before a critical debate in the United States Congress, Daniel Webster said, “When the mariner has been tossed about for many days in thick weather on an unknown sea, he naturally avails himself of the first pause in the storm, the earliest glance of the sun to take his latitude and ascertain where he is in relation to his desired course. Let us imitate this prudence and before we float on the waves of this debate refer to the point from which we departed, that we may at least be able to conjecture where we now are.”
Knowing how to take that first pause in a storm to see where we are in relation to our desired destination, whether in political discourse, business or interpersonal connections, is the first step toward getting to better weather and brighter days.
Remembering that even the fiercest wind in the most violent storm in any aspect of life will eventually subside. Stillness will follow and a moment of calm will come.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/2QyD1xA
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