If asked what is it to be strong, is there a better answer than to be yourself? If that isn’t the answer what does that mean? Could it be anything other than to be yourself, as in what you have or whether or not you are popular regardless of who you are? Strength is not a thing outside of us, it is inside us, the kind of person you/I develop into as we live our lives and have experiences where we make choices that determine where and how we live and in part but not totally affect what has been, is now, and will be our lives.
We view things or even people as being strength at times. Money, a relationship, a career, valuable possessions, status or reputation are things outside us that we pursue in our lives in this stage of human society and that is not new, amplified and seen as being in reach by more than ever is very true. What do these things outside us do that makes them seem like strength? Is it the influence they have over other people? Certainly a person who has all or some of those things in abundance has more options at their disposal than a person who does not, but where that goes is not always a good, healthy or a better way. Is it just me or does it seem like all the major issues in the World are caused by people who by some and usually the popular standard socially of what it is to be successful and are people who have all those outside of themselves things going for them? And so is it then that things outside of us like money, a relationship, a career, valuable possessions, status or reputation are what make us strong?
Those things outside of us are tools (I would exclude relationships from this point) that we use to affect our environment and other people as well as to sustain and protect ourselves. Clearly a person with a lot of money can make good choices or bad choices with it and so it’s value is relative, as are all outside things (I would include relationships to this point). A person with a high level of status and a good reputation could use their good will with other people to mislead them like for example political reasons, is that a thing that one way or perspective or another we see happening in the World everyday? And then is that strength? Is it strength to hurt other people or other life like plants and animals. There’s the obviousness of people have to eat and everything does but that’s not what I question here. The answer is a moral issue, when those who have control over other people view controlling other people as their personal power for their own selves rather than wisely creating a state of social order through wise and just influence, things can go to the societal extreme of totalitarianism and every shade of grey between that and whatever the current shade of grey the state of democracy is.
And now at this point in my little essay about strength my thought goes to, am I confusing the word strength with the word integrity? Maybe, but what if they are one and the same? And then what happens when they are and a person then has those outside things as well, or what if they don’t? Different decision making is what the result is, regardless of what we have at our disposal or for our survival in life. Some might say, “but it’s a dog eat dog World”, that mentality leads to a lot of dogs barking and snarling over scraps and prey. Not stronger but weaker as individuals willing to hurt others for personal gain, position and societally like for example government corruption that degrades a nation rather than upgrades. And the person who doesn’t have the outside things at a level where having that could be confused with strength, or them, what is different in that situation, the situation of the average or even a person in a below average situation in life materialistically? Is strength internally that is based on integrity what makes the difference in a valuable and fulfilling life regardless of financial wealth and possessions? How could it not be? It’s what makes the difference in a person who falls down over and over again and likely knocks a few people over in the process and a person who picks themselves up if need be and perhaps others as well, who then rises above and finds happiness and peace regardless of possessions or financial wealth and is willing to make a moral stand where need be when there are issues like injustice for example, and that last part, making a stand when needed for the safety and well being of oneself and society is an aspect of strength that we see people of all walks of life and levels of financial wealth and status making in many different ways in the World isn’t it? Aren’t those the hero’s of the World and history and isn’t that why? My perspective on those questions is yes. What is yours? I think it matters.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
And so to know the difference between strength that truly comes from within and the illusion of strength in our modern World which can at times be sadly described as destructive excess, is to know that real strength and where it originates, it’s potential is you, who you are, this for me is not just thought but belief and experience for better and worse, I believe I should not let anyone tell me otherwise regardless of their philosophy, that would be giving anyone who tried a lot of power over myself, and you as well if you allowed that to be put on you.