Quite a risqué heading, I know all too well. Back in the 1970’s it was considered a shocking affront to show bare-naked lady breasts, only dared at certain dark city theaters and rural drive-ins, and now…well, to NOT show the afore mentioned signifies that the production is probably a Disney cartoon intended not to offend the austere sexual morality of global despots in places like China or Saudi Arabia. But that is not what I am getting at. Rather, what I am asking in my title is, how far would you go in risking your capital wealth or health or even life itself for another, or for an ideal?
There is the obvious example at the center of Christianity, of course, a religion based on giving everything, all, to others for God’s sake regardless, but that is way over the heads of most of us. Instead, consider what you would give under certain circumstances. Would you give your kidney to your child? To your wife? To your mother-in-law? A stranger in need? Would you give your savings to your struggling grown-up son, or to orphans in Haiti, or for mistreated dogs? How about your health and your life? For who and under what circumstances would you give yourself up to excruciating torture and eventual death?
It is an age-old question, I know, but it came up with us after viewing “The Courier” on Amazon Prime. Based on a true story, the movie has us witness the recruitment by British intelligence of an average European salesman in the early 1960’s to bring messages from a KGB informant in Moscow back to the salesman’s hometown of London. He is terrified to do so, but is assured that he is only a courier, and should be safe from imprisonment and execution in the USSR – probably. As just an average Joe – or Nigel - he is torn between his patriotic duty and natural fear. Sure, the KGB probably won’t get him, he thinks, but they might. Still, he does it. This causes him to drink more heavily and to fight with his wife and son until both leave him, setting off to a hotel until he comes back to his senses.
After several exchanges of information, his handler in MI6 (British intel.) finds that things are getting hairy both at home and abroad in Moscow, and so he dismisses the salesman after thanking him for his service. But by then something has changed. In the course of the few years our salesman has been meeting with the KGB informant, he finds that the latter is truly a brave and dedicated man, betraying his government not for gold, but to save humanity from nuclear catastrophe. At the time of his dismissal, he also learns (from an American CIA agent) that his KGB colonel friend is on the verge of being discovered by his own (KGB) agency. At this, this timid salesman insists that he be allowed to return to Moscow just one more time to help save the man he now considers a hero.
I will not explain the events further for those who wish to see it, but I must add that our British everyman turns into a stout hero himself, not only out of respect for the Russian colonel, but for the ideal the Colonel willing is willing to die for. The ideal concerns the continuation of life itself – life for everyone, not just for Russian autocrats or for Russian propaganda, an ideal that stretches far beyond a concern for home, country, or family. Through the ideal, our average salesman is brought to understand that there is something in life that is greater than one’s personal life.
We have seen this kind of movie before, but in this, the British everyman is so much like ourselves in his fears and lifestyle that it is particularly impactful, and necessarily raises the question in the heading of this essay: how far would YOU go for family, country, the world; that is, for an ideal that requires tremendous self-sacrifice?
Pain hurts. Fear is fearful. I hate them both and shudder to think of placing myself at the tender mercy of professional torturers for anything. Of course I would have to for my children and immediate family regardless simply because the pain of not doing so would be even greater than physical pain. But for anything or anyone more? For the “world?” For country? Or how about, as the nuns in my religious classes in grammar school always demanded, for an idea of God? In grammar school we always thought that dying for an immortal god was stupid. Why not, we all reasoned, agree with the commie Russian invaders while keeping your fingers crossed? God, who knows all, would know our true heart, right? We should get a pass, right?
Which gets to the heart of sacrifice. The Buddha nearly starved himself to death to find wisdom, and Christ went for 40 days in the desert without food and with minimal amounts of water to purify himself for His Father. This was not to lose weight, mind you, or to impress the neighbors, but rather to come closer to universal truth by giving up what the rest of the world craves. This is also what bravery does: it raises us above our normal fears of pain and death so that life itself becomes less important than the mission, or the idea behind the mission, which is self-sacrifice, which is the denial of life’s rawest instincts.
So it has always been, even for those who do not consciously understand what they are doing by their sacrifice or acts of bravery. The profound truth of sacrifice has always been with us – that to forsake our safety or the pleasures of the world for an ideal is a good and noble thing. It is as much a part of the grammar school code as it is a part of the creed from the Vatican, but it ultimately amounts to the same thing – that, as Jesus said, we must give up our life, or the world, to gain either in full.
This, life for the simple sake of living it, is the cloud that keeps us from seeing further into the meaning of existence. It must be pushed aside like a curtain so that we may see the sun and sky and the reality outside our little room. In practicality, this means pushing aside much that holds us to this life. That means fasting, giving up objects of our desires, and ultimately, giving up life itself if called for. The nobility that is at the heart of self-denial and the warrior’s courage, then, is not only for those of warrior cultures or for those contemplating religious abstractions, but rather is at the heart of self-discovery and salvation. It is something born into us, and strives to live through us in whatever way it can – from putting money aside for our children’s education to giving up our lives for our family, our country, or our god. In the end, sacrifice points to the same absolute necessity. In the end, it turns our faces towards the window and raises our hands to the curtain so that we might see real life in its eternal fullness.
So why, then, if we are born to this path, is denial so hard? It is the pain and the suffering and the want and the fear. These form the curtain. How far are we willing to reach, then, so that the curtain can be pushed aside? Or rather, if we are like our everyman salesman, how far must some thing or some circumstance need to push us before we see the light beyond the curtain?
Quite a risqué heading, I know all too well. Back in the 1970’s it was considered a shocking affront to show bare-naked lady breasts, only dared at certain dark city theaters and rural drive-ins, and now…well, to NOT show the afore mentioned signifies that the production is probably a Disney cartoon intended not to offend the austere sexual morality of global despots in places like China or Saudi Arabia. But that is not what I am getting at. Rather, what I am asking in my title is, how far would you go in risking your capital wealth or health or even life itself for another, or for an ideal?
There is the obvious example at the center of Christianity, of course, a religion based on giving everything, all, to others for God’s sake regardless, but that is way over the heads of most of us. Instead, consider what you would give under certain circumstances. Would you give your kidney to your child? To your wife? To your mother-in-law? A stranger in need? Would you give your savings to your struggling grown-up son, or to orphans in Haiti, or for mistreated dogs? How about your health and your life? For who and under what circumstances would you give yourself up to excruciating torture and eventual death?
It is an age-old question, I know, but it came up with us after viewing “The Courier” on Amazon Prime. Based on a true story, the movie has us witness the recruitment by British intelligence of an average European salesman in the early 1960’s to bring messages from a KGB informant in Moscow back to the salesman’s hometown of London. He is terrified to do so, but is assured that he is only a courier, and should be safe from imprisonment and execution in the USSR – probably. As just an average Joe – or Nigel - he is torn between his patriotic duty and natural fear. Sure, the KGB probably won’t get him, he thinks, but they might. Still, he does it. This causes him to drink more heavily and to fight with his wife and son until both leave him, setting off to a hotel until he comes back to his senses.
After several exchanges of information, his handler in MI6 (British intel.) finds that things are getting hairy both at home and abroad in Moscow, and so he dismisses the salesman after thanking him for his service. But by then something has changed. In the course of the few years our salesman has been meeting with the KGB informant, he finds that the latter is truly a brave and dedicated man, betraying his government not for gold, but to save humanity from nuclear catastrophe. At the time of his dismissal, he also learns (from an American CIA agent) that his KGB colonel friend is on the verge of being discovered by his own (KGB) agency. At this, this timid salesman insists that he be allowed to return to Moscow just one more time to help save the man he now considers a hero.
I will not explain the events further for those who wish to see it, but I must add that our British everyman turns into a stout hero himself, not only out of respect for the Russian colonel, but for the ideal the Colonel willing is willing to die for. The ideal concerns the continuation of life itself – life for everyone, not just for Russian autocrats or for Russian propaganda, an ideal that stretches far beyond a concern for home, country, or family. Through the ideal, our average salesman is brought to understand that there is something in life that is greater than one’s personal life.
We have seen this kind of movie before, but in this, the British everyman is so much like ourselves in his fears and lifestyle that it is particularly impactful, and necessarily raises the question in the heading of this essay: how far would YOU go for family, country, the world; that is, for an ideal that requires tremendous self-sacrifice?
Pain hurts. Fear is fearful. I hate them both and shudder to think of placing myself at the tender mercy of professional torturers for anything. Of course I would have to for my children and immediate family regardless simply because the pain of not doing so would be even greater than physical pain. But for anything or anyone more? For the “world?” For country? Or how about, as the nuns in my religious classes in grammar school always demanded, for an idea of God? In grammar school we always thought that dying for an immortal god was stupid. Why not, we all reasoned, agree with the commie Russian invaders while keeping your fingers crossed? God, who knows all, would know our true heart, right? We should get a pass, right?
Which gets to the heart of sacrifice. The Buddha nearly starved himself to death to find wisdom, and Christ went for 40 days in the desert without food and with minimal amounts of water to purify himself for His Father. This was not to lose weight, mind you, or to impress the neighbors, but rather to come closer to universal truth by giving up what the rest of the world craves. This is also what bravery does: it raises us above our normal fears of pain and death so that life itself becomes less important than the mission, or the idea behind the mission, which is self-sacrifice, which is the denial of life’s rawest instincts.
So it has always been, even for those who do not consciously understand what they are doing by their sacrifice or acts of bravery. The profound truth of sacrifice has always been with us – that to forsake our safety or the pleasures of the world for an ideal is a good and noble thing. It is as much a part of the grammar school code as it is a part of the creed from the Vatican, but it ultimately amounts to the same thing – that, as Jesus said, we must give up our life, or the world, to gain either in full.
This, life for the simple sake of living it, is the cloud that keeps us from seeing further into the meaning of existence. It must be pushed aside like a curtain so that we may see the sun and sky and the reality outside our little room. In practicality, this means pushing aside much that holds us to this life. That means fasting, giving up objects of our desires, and ultimately, giving up life itself if called for. The nobility that is at the heart of self-denial and the warrior’s courage, then, is not only for those of warrior cultures or for those contemplating religious abstractions, but rather is at the heart of self-discovery and salvation. It is something born into us, and strives to live through us in whatever way it can – from putting money aside for our children’s education to giving up our lives for our family, our country, or our god. In the end, sacrifice points to the same absolute necessity. In the end, it turns our faces towards the window and raises our hands to the curtain so that we might see real life in its eternal fullness.
So why, then, if we are born to this path, is denial so hard? It is the pain and the suffering and the want and the fear. These form the curtain. How far are we willing to reach, then, so that the curtain can be pushed aside? Or rather, if we are like our everyman salesman, how far must some thing or some circumstance need to push us before we see the light beyond the curtain?
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