“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the star ship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”–William Shatner
How many times in your life does exhortation come to “go boldly,” into anywhere?
Wait.
Here’s a better question: When was the last time anyone encouraged you to act boldly?
Well, split infinitives aside, we’d like to assert, here on the HSCT blog, that boldness is the only way to go in a world defined by timidity, false pride, arrogance, irrationality and impulsive behaviors. And the conflicts that go along with all of those afflictions.
However, don’t believe us. Take a look at the definition of the word, “bold.”
Bold (adj)
- fearless and adventurous: willing and eager to face danger or adventure with a sense of confidence and fearlessness
- requiring or showing daring: requiring or showing fearlessness, daring, and often originality
- impudent or presumptuous: lacking in modesty or impolitely assertive.
All of those definitions are excellent, but the one for the purposes of our assertion in this blog post is the one most defined by the Old Russian proverb to “pray to God, but row for the shore.”
Acting boldly is something that requires a certain amount of fearlessness, courage and tenacity. All traits that we talked about last week in this space.
But we wonder, what are the gifts of boldness? What are those virtues that we attain from jumping headlong into a situation and facing a difficulty head on?
Some of them include:
- Meekness
- Humility
- Courage
- Curiosity
- Healing
- Patience
- Resolution
- Perseverance
- Faith
- Mercy
- Grace
All of these are critical to have in the pursuit of peace, but the most critical one is the fact that boldness takes us across oceans of fear, blackness and self-doubt.
Boldness took human beings across the ocean and all the way to the Moon and back.
Timidity and fear keep us huddled at home, behind the skirts of Mother Earth, wondering who will save us from ourselves, constantly looking up for a savior instead of doing the hard work to bring out the Savior already in us.
Acting, responding and living with boldness is the opposite of living with fear.
And it gets us as far as Gene Roddenberry could have ever imagined–and then catapults us even further.
Live boldly.
-Peace Be With You All-
Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principal Conflict Engagement Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
Email HSCT: hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com
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