on courage.

When I was a sophomore in college I took a class taught by Dr. Joseph Colombo: a funny older man who smoked cigarettes outside our classroom while wearing a suit two-sizes too big. Truthfully, it was the most theoretically rigorous class I've ever taken. It was titled Belief and Unbelief and it discussed - very densely, with readings from Durkheim and Marx - the problems that face people when believing in god (or gods, goddesses, yahweh, jah, or any benevolent force in the universe).

One day in class, a student interrupted him in the middle of a lecture. "But, does God exist?" he shouted. At first Dr. Colombo's reply didn't seem to make sense. He began by saying that when he went to graduate school he had a choice. He was accepted to both divinity school and medical school. And he chose to devote his life to the study of God. He said he still wondered sometimes if he had made the right choice. Because sometimes he doesn't think he believes.

I'll never forgot that. How could a man who had devoted his whole life to religion wonder if God was real? And if he did ... how was I supposed to believe?

In the last day of lecture he inadvertently answered my question. He said:

"Life is full of tragedies. Life is full of disappointments. Some trivial. Some profound. When one recognizes and confronts this - that is courage. It is the steely eyed resolve to not look away. And, in the face of these things to continue in the belief of basic trust, basic hope, and basic love."

Belief in anything - in god, or a dream - means going forward. There will be confusion. There will be hurt. But when we seek to understand, when we choose to open up again, that is courage. That is what it means to believe.

(photo) iphone | San Francisco pan handle. (p.s) all it takes is two seconds | a reminder to be brave.