into a fist for strength. So in sign, literally, courage starts with fear. I’ve always found that
very moving, and very consoling. Because fear is true. It’s there. It might be substance-less
but it’s nonetheless there. And sometimes fear is correct. Sometimes there are threats that
are going on. I meet people sometimes and they’re about to make a courageous step in their
community. And you go, “Yep, there actually are risks here. And there’s no point pretending
that there aren’t. You might lose some friends or your job security might be in jeopardy if you
do something that will feel like you’re being unfaithful to them by calling out an injustice.” SoIt all comes from the heart, that’s what I love. Courage in English coming from the Latin word
“cor,” meaning heart. And that courage is often portrayed as something like, “Rarr!” or valour,
something that a knight on a horse does, do you know? But I love that it’s about heart. And
that it is about enacting a language of the heart.Yes, and maybe this is a good point to share a little of my past
and living in the north of Ireland, or Northern Ireland, however
people wish to speak about it. I prefer to talk about the north
of Ireland. But living here there’s a lot of talk about the shared
future. How we can create a shared future given a divided past.
People here disagree about who the blamed party is when it
comes to the conflict. Some will say, “Well if you start at 1969,
you blame the IRA.” “If you start in 1920s then you blame the
British for partition.” “If you start in the 1840s you blame the
policies behind the famine that meant a million people died in
four years.” Et cetera. So there’s always this question of seeking
who ultimately the perpetrator and the victim is. And in an age of talking about a divided
past, people often talk about trying to get to this very distant shared future. What I think that
bypasses is the fact that nothing is done unless it is enacted in the present. When we stay
with only an imagination of the future, it means we’re not thinking: “Today, at this meeting,
I have to be prepared to say something unexpected; to make a gesture across a political
divide; to make some kind of movement; to make some kind of indication of change; to be
willing to expose the vulnerable heart of my own identity and my own political identity; to be
willing to speak out against my own rather than just speak out against those who I see being
on the other side of my political divide.” To be able to say, “Here is what I think the problem
with my group is.” When political and community leaders have done that, it has spread an
extraordinary story that galvanises the possibility of people thinking, Yeah, that was really
courageous. Maybe they’ll get some flack for it from others. It’s part of the unfolding. I don’t
think the future will be interesting enough unless we do something now that actually begins
to make it. That’s what I’m always interested in when it comes to group work: can you say
something interesting now? Something unexpected? Or even can you ask a question to which
you know you don’t know the answer? It’s really interesting when somebody says, “What’s
that like?” And you can genuinely tell they want to listen, and they’re not listening to pounce.
One time a man—and this can be really complicated in an LGBT dialogue—a man who had[Sighs, laughs]. Yeah. I find that enormously
encouraging. Often people make a duality
and say we can act out of love or fear.
But perhaps we need to come from the
recognition that yes, we are always in fear.
We are acting in fear. And we can build from
there to a place of strength. I noticed that
at the front of In The Shelter you’ve got that
lovely quote from Joseph Campbell that
where you stumble, there lies your treasure.it’s worthwhile sometimes going, “Yeah, there
are risks and fears, that’s okay. And now let’s
talk about the movement from fear into strength,which is the act of courage.”
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DUMBO FEATHER