Journal of Sacred Work

"Use the force, Luke. Let go." Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars

   Every example of human courage I can envision involves choice. The hardest choice of all may be to surrender our ego so that our true humanity may shine through.
   George Lucas’ concept of "the Force" is an interesting one for caregivers to consider. A patient lying ill with cancer is not automatically courageous. The typical role of the caregiver is to seek to cure and to relieve pain. Beyond that, however, is the sophisticated challenge to caregivers to help support patients as they search for courage. This choice requires courage for both caregiver and patient…

   Pain and suffering are perhaps the hardest things we human beings faces. Caregivers who can not only relieve pain but help the sufferer in his encounter with pain are true heroes.
   As every child who receives a shot comes to know, caregivers often need to inflict pain in order to accomplish cures. No one likes to see a child cry. Everyone wants to see a child recover which is why we tolerate the infliction of pain to achieve a greater good.
   The most loving caregivers are also the most courageous. These are the angels who enter the pain of another even when they risk taking on more suffering for themselves. As Sarah, a hospice caregiver, says in the film A Place Called Alive, "Some part of me is always grieving." This is because Sarah has so often found the courage to follow her compassion into the darkness of a patient’s suffering in an effort to relieve that suffering.
   Love requires courage. Courage lives at the core of our humanity. Using it always requires a choice.

-Erie Chapman