#1834 Heroic Harriet

In our last +1, we talked about a recent chat I had with a new friend who happens to be one of the best college basketball coaches in the country.

(Thanks for connecting us, Billy D!)

Now…

I promised we’d talk more about his favorite hero a little more.

So…

Let’s.

As you may recall, my new friend’s favorite hero is Harriet Tubman.

In his book Leaders: Myth and Reality, General Stanley McChrystal features Harriet and her TRULY Heroic commitment to something bigger than herself as a case study.

Here’s how McChrystal puts it: “Her resolve to return South, and then do it again and again and again, set her apart. This choice—to return to the land of her bondage over and over and over—is what took her from being one of brave thousands who took their own liberty, to one of dozens, who once or twice returned south to help others to one of one—the Harriet Tubman we remember nearly two hundred years after her birth from going back south thirteen times rescuing around eighty slaves, giving advice to dozens more, and eventually strengthening the resolve of multitudes.”

McChrystal continues by saying: “Though ‘Slavery,’ as she once said, was ‘the next thing to hell,’ freedom did not mean happiness if it meant her family was still in bondage. ‘I was a stranger in a strange land; and my home, after all, was down in Maryland; because my father, my mother, my brothers, and sisters, and friends were there. But I was free, and they should be free,’ Tubman would say later in her life. Her sense of duty to her family was matched by her fierce belief that God would always protect and guide her. When asked about her decisions to return south, Tubman always responded, ‘T’wasn’t me, ’twas de Lord! I always tole him, ‘I trust you. I don’t know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me,’ an ’he always did.’”

That’s Today’s +1.

If you feel so inspired…

Pause for a moment and feel into the incredible LOVE that fueled Harriet Tubman’s incredible COURAGE.

Then…

Remind yourself that a Hero is a PROTECTOR.

We live for something bigger than ourselves.

Our secret weapon is LOVE.

Now…

Thanks to the Heroic wisdom, discipline, love, and courage people like Harriet Tubman embodied, we no longer live in a country in which physical bondage exists.

Yet…

Unfortunately…

More people than ever are experiencing the invisible bondage of psychological suffering.

It’s with that in mind, that I want to shine a spotlight on THIS Heroic wisdom from Harriet Tubman…

As McChrystal tells us, Harriet believed that freedom does not mean happiness if it means our families are still in bondage.

Feel into that for a moment longer.

Freedom does not mean happiness if it means our families are still in bondage.

Then…

If you feel so inspired…

Think about members of YOUR family who may be struggling…

And…

Let’s recommit to forging the strength for THEM as we do the hard work to embody our ideals and make a difference in our families and communities…

TODAY.