Show Me How Strong You Are
A letter from the sage to his son
Hello, son.
If at all you find yourself at the great crossroads of destiny and life, it is my hope that you read my letters again, and find home in their rusty pages.
It was ever amazing to me — seeing people work out or lift heavyweights. I’d always marvel at the way they’d grab the metal bar on which the weights hung and yank it high above their heads in swift, stunning movements. A more spectacular scene for me was a wrestling match. In fits of wits and fists, a fighter had to hold his opponent down in full submission to emerge the winner. The winner was known to be the strongest of the two.
Guessing the winner before the match was so easy for me. All I needed to do was look at the size of their muscles and place my bet on the one with larger muscles. I saw strength as muscles then.
Growing up a little bit more, I began to see strength as power and wealth! The elevated man was stronger than the common man, and the rich man was stronger than the poor man. The bigger man says jump, and the smaller man asks, “How high?” —This was how I viewed strength.
The problem with this was that I became obsessed with power and wealth. I wanted power, craved over wealth, and saw them as the only way I could show my strength in the community. It was only after long reflections and studies that I discovered what true strength was really about.
We’ve seen a lot of people throughout history, do crazy things for power, or to show how strong they were. The battle for the strongest is one humanity has been fighting for a long time, and will keep fighting for generations to come until we reach the understanding that true strength is not measured by fists or muscles, neither is it assessed by power or wealth.
True strength is something far abstract. It’s something we see only when we look carefully inwards.
My son, true strength is realizing your uniqueness as well as that of every other being in the universe.
Show me how strong you are by learning to accept yourself the way you are. Show me your strength by recognizing that everyone is different, and cannot be like you, no matter how hard it is.
Strength is taking risks and also assuming responsibility for whatever outcome they bring. So, show me your strength by taking a step even when you don’t/can’t see the whole stairs.
Son, strength is knowing when to end toxic friendships, partnerships, and relationships. Yeah! Show me how strong you are by knowing when to say, “I quit!”
Strength is drawing a line between fantasy and reality. Strength is setting your goals and working badly to achieve them. Strength is understanding that every day is a test, and everyone’s got a different question paper. Strength is walking away from unproductive meetings, discussions, and arguments. You’re strong, my son, if you can lower your pride to say the words, "Please," and “I’m sorry.”
Strength is standing up for something! Not because it’s okay, not because it what’s trending, but because it’s what’s right!
Strength is reaching out to others, defying the allure of self-centeredness because, in the long run, kindness would be all that really matters. Strength is believing in one humanity. One devoid of racism, tribalism, or prejudice. Son! Show me your strength by shunning evil and injustice, and fighting it with every fiber of your being.
Show me how strong you are by letting the past, pass. Strong people know there’s no future in the past. Show me you are strong if you can give without remembering, and take without forgetting.
True strength has never meant pushing someone down. In fact, you need little strength to push down. The real strength is shown when you can pull that person up! So, show me your strength by lifting people up, rather than bringing them down.
Show me how strong you are, my son, by accepting change when necessary, for change is the only constant thing. You are stronger than me, son. For you have my brains and a better heart. Soar, fight, and do not be afraid to make mistakes! They make us wiser.
You are powerful my son, if you can rise above obloquy and calumny. If you can take that fear and turn it into a dare, or turn that discrimination into veneration, then you're a strong man, dear son.
Now rise from your slumber for opportunity knocks. It finds you wherever you are, whether you live in a castle on the hill, or in a shabby, bushy cottage. Get up now, son. Go to it and welcome it warmly, for it is not a regular visitor.
I’ll leave with you my son, a piece from Sir. Rudyard Kipling, who wrote:
“If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you; If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you, But make allowance for their doubting too; If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies, Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating, And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise; If you can dream — and not make dreams your master; If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim; If you can meet with triumph and disaster And treat those two impostors just the same; If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools, Or watch the things you gave your life to broken, And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools; If you can make one heap of all your winnings And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose, and start again at your beginnings And never breathe a word about your loss; If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew To serve your turn long after they are gone, And so hold on when there is nothing in you Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”; If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch; If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you; If all men count with you, but none too much; If you can fill the unforgiving minute With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run — Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it, And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!”
Till we meet again, son, at tables meant for kings.
Your dear father.