Embracing Courage Over Comfort (Better than Normal 2)
This photo was from about 6 days ago. It was such an unusual moment to see the clouds so sharply defined. In reality, the bottom part of that “opening” is a bit of an illusion. There are some clouds on the horizon but they aren’t the sharply defined cloud front that the upper ones are. But it definitely created a moment that felt really unique.
It was this image that I was drawn to in reflecting on the 2nd of MaryAnn’s shifts in Better Than Normal - this one being Embracing Courage Over Comfort. (Preorder Better Than Normal here or at any other bookstore. BUT, If you order directly from the publisher at this link and use the code NORMAL40, you’ll get 40% off!!). It was notably in two quotes - one from Alexandra Rowland and one from MaryAnn. She shares of how Rowland created a term “hopepunk” to describe a new genre of speculative fiction. Rowland writes,
“Hopepunk is scrappy and loving, a conscious moral choice to be kind and to persevere. In hopepunk1, the outcome isn’t assured, yet nevertheless, we persist.”2
A specific choice to be kind and persevere even when the outcome isn’t assured. MaryAnn follows up on this with how “courage invites us to stay in the fight, to do the thing regardless of outcome, and to believe that sometimes things can go from bleak to transformed very quickly.”3
So many of the stories I love dearly have moments where a person is faced with this choice - of taking a leap into a new possibility or staying in what has become the “normal” even if it is uncomfortable, dangerous, or clearly wrong. This is very much a part of the traditional “hero’s journey” were someone has to make this choice without a clear sense of the ultimate outcome but knowing that it is the path that needed to be taken. This is seen in ancient stories like The Odyssey and in recent stories such as Tolkien’s Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, the Star Wars films, and even most recently (although in a slightly sideways way), Project Hail Mary.
In this final week of the Christian season of Lent, we yesterday remembered the story of Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem seemingly knowing exactly what was to come for him there. While there is one notable moment when the Gospels reflect conflicting feelings Jesus had about what was ahead, largely they show Jesus pressing forward even though he knew what he was to undergo. He enters into those final days with courage fully knowing the outcome.
In his book, The Spirit of Justice, Jemar Tisby, PhD shares story after story of women and men fighting for racial justice with faith, courage, imagination, and resilience. Most of those he profiles are people who don’t have any clear sense of the future outcome of their work but they continue on in a spirit of hopepunk long before that word ever showed up. They gave up so many aspects of “comfort”4 in their acts of courage not only for themselves but more so for others. The others that they were working for might be known but more so they were people they would never know.
Back to the photo...The illuminated path is narrow and narrowing surrounded by ominous clouds. This unique scene speaks to me of how this shift from comfort to courage often feels like navigating a narrowing path where the outcome seems less and less sure but still one must keep pushing forward. It is like the Death Star Trench Run where the seemingly impossible target must be hit or a ship called The Hail Mary being humanity’s “last, best chance.” There are plenty of other fictional stories that can be lifted up but this is the day-to-day choice of so many others, many of whom are inspired by the courageous steps of Jesus.
One of those people is Myrlie Evers-Williams who was pushed into the civil rights fight after the murder of her husband Medgar Evers. Tisby writes about her:
Myrlie Evers-Williams is a confessor of the civil rights movement. She went through pain and loss that no one should have to bear. With the crack of a gun, her husband became a martyr of the movement, and she became a widow and a single parent. In the face of this devastating theft of life, she continued her work for justice. Evers-Williams managed the first state office of the NAACP in Mississippi, a visible role that left her vulnerable to constant threats and intimidation. She persevered for thirty years while her husband’s killer walked free until a jury finally convicted him in 1994. She went back to school and earned her bachelor’s degree, wrote books, remarried, raised a family, and became national chair of the board for the NAACP, leading the organization her husband once worked for...5
As he then details the realities of how so much of the results of the civil rights movement has been upended over the last decade, he concludes with this:
At the precise time when successive generations should be gifting her the progress made possible because of her work, she once again must tap into the spirit of justice to continue the fight against racism. The same spirit of justice that empowered generations past is available to you today. It has been there for people across time whenever they needed it. It is here when you need it too. And, lamentably, it is always needed. So pause for a moment. Listen intently to the sound of your soul and the echoes of your ancestors. Listen closely enough and you will hear a still, small voice encouraging you to declare your dignity and stand up for righteousness.
The spirit of justice still speaks.6
This spirit is still speaking to shift us from comfort to courage and continuing to write more hopepunk stories…
A few more recent photos, including the required Scout image…
And Scout from Sunday morning as well - complete with lens flares…
Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed
There’s a great writeup as well on hopepunk on wikipedia here if you are interested
Alexandra Rowland quoted in McKibben Dana, MaryAnn. Better than Normal. (pp 42). Pre-release edition.
McKibben Dana, MaryAnn. Better than Normal. (pp 43). Pre-release edition.
I put comfort in quotation marks because comfort isn’t the way one would necessarily describe the situations that those in Tisby’s book lived within. But their actions would push them into even less “comfortable” situations.
Tisby, Jemar. The Spirit of Justice: True Stories of Faith, Race, and Resistance (pp. 231-232). Kindle Edition.
Ibid