The Courage to Care
"The Courage to Care" by Wendyl K. Leslie
I got to poking through some of the old things I'd saved and
came across a wonderful little article from an issue of
"Guideposts Magazine." It's by Arthur Gordon and is titled "The
Rewards of Caring."
He tells the story of how once, as a small boy, he was witness
to a near-tragedy. At the beach, a woman stepped off a sandbar
into deep, swift water and panicked. At least 20 adults in
bathing suits watched, apparently paralyzed, until suddenly a
young man ran up, plunged in fully clothed, and brought the
woman out.
As Arthur Gordon described the episode later to his parents, his
admiration for the young man was matched by the contempt he felt
for those who failed to act. She was drowning, and they didn't
even seem to care.
His father looked at him thoughtfully and said, "The world often
seems divided between those who care and those who don't care
enough. But don't judge too harshly. It takes courage to care
greatly."
It does take courage to care, to open your heart and react with
sympathy or compassion or indignation or enthusiasm when it is
easier--and sometimes safer--not to get involved. But people who
take the risk, who deliberately discard the armor of
indifference, make a tremendous discovery: The more things you
care about, and the more intensely you care,the more alive you
become.
Caring or not caring can spell the difference between success
and failure in a job, in a marriage--in every human
relationship. As Emerson said, "Nothing great was everachieved
without enthusiasm." And what is enthusiasm but passionate
caring?
A famous jeweler once sold a magnificent ruby after one of his
salespeople had failed to interest the customer. Asked how he
did it, the jeweler said, "My clerk is an excellent man, an
expert on precious stones. There's just one difference between
us: He knows jewels, but I "love" them. I care what happens to
them, who wears them. The customers sense this. It makes them
want to buy--and they do."
In such cases, of course, caring ultimately brings tangible
reward, but the great philosophers and religious leaders have
always taught this paradox: The most rewarding form of caring is
caring without hope of reward. Fortunately for mankind, the
world is full of people who go quietly through life performing,
as Wordsworth put it, "little, nameless, unremembered acts of
kindness and love."
The volunteer worker at the hospital, the unpaid canvasser for
the community chest, the neighbor who offers to take care of
your children while you settle a new house--such people have no
ulterior motive and expect no recompense. They act because they
care, and their actions--multiplied by millions--supply the
force that keeps the human race moving upward from barbarism
along the path of growth.
There are people who say that if you care too much, you can get
hurt. That's right--you win some, and you lose some. But the
alternative is a pretty bleak and uninteresting existence.