Thought for the Day: Courage to face your difficulties

[sobrique]

I managed to catch thought for the day, on BBC Radio 4 this morning. I don't usually, as that 10 minutes of sleep usually calls to me too strongly. But today, we had Rabbi Lionel Blue, giving something to think about.

One of the things he said struck me: "Don't pray for your difficulties to go away. Pray for the courage to face them".

Now, whatever your stance on prayer, the sentiment is one I'd echo.

The measure of a Man* is not in the difficulties he faces, but in how he faces them.

(theferrett made a post on the subject a while back, How do you grow up in today's society and part II.)

It leads me back to a question I posed some time back. When does childhood end?. I think I'm starting to reach an answer. Childhood ends, on the day where you're prepared to stand alone against whatever challenges life brings. On the day, when whatever comes, you are prepared to face it.

Life brings many challenges, from our own personal weaknesses, to world changing catastrophies. But the 'adults' are the ones who will stand unflinching before them. Ironically, it's the smallest end of the scale that can be hardest to face. The fact that we are fallible. That we do make mistakes. And that in the end of all things, we may just not be the person we think we are. And it's that that's the hardest to stare down, in the the hard cold light of day.

*I don't use it in the gender perjorative sense, but in the distinction between Men and boys, you could as easily use Woman, except I'm trying to bring forth the difference between 'male' and 'man'

Comments

[crashbarrier.livejournal.com]

I think that childhood is a missnomer,its something invented by the Victorians. I like to think of humans in terms of maturity.

In the animal kingdom you have a very definate line between dependant young and responsible mature animal. It seems that only Humans prolong the dependant Young stage to way further than it is truely needed. Indeed some people never grow out of the condition:D.

[velvet-nothing.livejournal.com]

I think that some parts of childhood are worth hanging onto; childhood is a time of optimism and energy; of being able to laugh at jokes that aren't crude. And I think another sign of maturity is knowing when you *do* need people to help you out; of not being too proud to ask when you need others. I think I've been growing up a lot in the last year or so. I feel like I *can* face things alone now, but I don't always choose to.

The turning point is

[pinkzhazha.livejournal.com]

At the point we accept that we alone are responsible for our actions and their consquences