A Dose of Reality

"...What drives the decision to live divided no more, with the risks it entails?
How do people find the courage to bring inner conviction into harmony with the outer act,
knowing when they do,
that the force of the institution may come down on their heads?

...The difference between the person who goes to the back of the bus and
the one who decides to sit up front
is probably lost in the mystery of the human heart.
But in Rosa Parks and others like her, I see a clue to an answer:
when you realize you can no longer collaborate in something that violates
your own integrity,
your understanding of punishment is suddenly transformed.

Whne the police came to Rosa Parks on the bus
and informed her that they would have to put her in jail if she did not move,
she replied, 'You may do that.'
It was a very polite way of saying,
'How could your jail begin to compare with the jail I have had myself in all these years
by collaborating with this racist system?'

The courage to live divided no more,
to face the punishment that may follow,
comes from this simple insight.

No punishment anyone lays on you
could possibly be worse
than the punishment you lay on yourself
by conspiring in your own diminshment."

(my teacher gave this excerpt out in class today.
if you want to read more:
Courage to Teach by Parker Palmer (1998) p. 171)