Modern Romanticism

“Humans grow like muscles. But during the crisis, we are revealing how much we can lift on our shoulders, can handle in the heat of tension.”

Modern Romanticism

There has been that saying, “Crisis doesn’t build character. It reveals it.” It is true, I believe, that in our handling of crisis, of conflict, of pain, we are revealing our strengths and our weaknesses. We are revealing the extent of our limits, at a given period of our lives. But when we are resting? When we rest, we are building back what we lost.

Muscles grow when they have been given their rest. Humans grow levels of maturity in the same way. We have limits on our effort to lift a certain degree of weight, and we should not find it shameful to admit that we have lost. Indeed, there is pride in accomplishment, but we should be able to retain our dignity even when we lose. Humans lose, like a bodybuilder is able to admit that they cannot lift a certain sum of weight. Should a human recognize their limits, then like the bodybuilder, they’ll be able to lessen their load until they have grown more, in strength, for a higher level of crisis. Just as a bodybuilder will recognize what they’ll be unable to lift, and so decrease the sum of weight, a person must recognize what they’ll be unable to do on their own.

Whether it’s through teamwork or through independence, limits have to be recognized if growth is ever to be gained. There is only a single time when a person has truly lost, and that is when they have lost their dignity. To no longer be dignified, even in failure, as that is when a person will no longer have any such strength left to face their conflicts and crises.

People lose, though retain their dignity in failure when they have recognized what they cannot handle, yet. They have recognized that it’s possible to one day conquer the crisis or the challenge that they are currently outmatched for.