To be resilient in the fight for justice is crucial, but not easily achieved. Such is written large in the lined faces of the now many I know who, in one way or another, have been required to overcome immense injustices life that has visited upon them. Those whose resilience has needed to endure across years and decades defined by a struggle for what is right. Whose hope during that time could not afford to give way to despair. Each one of those men and women of dignity and spirit offered much to me as I attempted to journey with them. They still offer much to us, if we dare to witness and participate in any fight against the injustices of life.
Rebecca Solnit writes in her work ‘Hope in the Dark’, “despair demands less of us, it’s more predictable, and, in a sad way, it’s safer.” If you don’t want to despair, then look to lives who, from their own struggle ,offer inspiration. Look to find out how they are composing meaningful lives in the face of injustice, delayed justice and the hurts that life has brought to their door.
There are many disappointments in the life of a dedicated activist.-So many lost children, killed ideas, thwarted plans. But the energy is not wasted if it is channeled in pursuit of what is good, right and just.
I’ve come to know that in fights against injustice, the system may not be permanently changed, but it can be made a bit kinder or more dignified, even if for a moment.
Suffering may not have ceased, but someone will have truly witnessed another’s suffering, and that mutual recognition, I know for certain, is healing in itself.
All is not equal, but a light has been shone on inequality and made people who perpetuate it take notice.
A child has learned how to ask for help. A former prisoner has eaten a home-cooked meal. A person’s consciousness has been altered by seeing a provocative film. The world has not been “saved,” but it has been made a little more just or beautiful.
The way we understand success and failure is critical, not just because it leads to achievable goals, but because it can ensure a grateful and resilient spirit, the only kind truly capable of investing in a better world for the long haul. What could be more radical in the end than refusing to be defeated or deflated by failure?
To reclaim failure as a mark of a visionary and impossible dream worth having, to root our confidence in the smallest of human interactions, to feel buoyed by one productive day, one humanising conversation, one healed wound. We need to feel that we have contributed to the world that we want to create, that we have talked with people that we disagreed with, in a way that we can be proud of, and that we have made our communities more dignified, beautiful, and peaceful through our own resilient nature.
Br Stephen Morris fcc
