The Power of Endurance
Endurance is the quietest form of heroism. It’s the ability
to survive, to resist, to remain true to one’s aims. Most training programmes
require endurance whether as a soldier, an athlete or writing a doctorate. Wilderness
survival courses are designed to test both the emotional and physical strength
of participants.
Survival in the face of near impossible conditions is seen a
primal urge that defines the human spirit and has motivated expeditions across
the world, extreme sports, and space travel to name a few. The world is in awe that John Fairfax rowed
solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1969 and Benoit Lecomte swam across it in
1998 or Samina Baig in July this year, reached the summit of the treacherous mount
K2,that has taken 66 lives.
Endurance can also be
a resistance to those wanting to destroy the human spirit. Nael al Barghouti
has been in an Israeli prison since 1978, when as a 21year old, he was resisting
Israeli occupation - the longest sentence endured by a political prisoner. His spirit has survived 44 years of
incarceration.
Nelson Mandela who led South Africa out of apartheid, writes
in his book, The Art of Endurance, about his years in South Africa prisons - the
secret of endurance was “the sacred art of making light out of darkness”.
Less noticed is everyday endurance. Trainer Bruk Ballenger calls
pregnancy the ultimate endurance achievement. Over 280 days, a woman’s body creates an
entirely new human being, requiring an energy level that reaches the upper
limit of what a human body can endure.
There is the endurance of the poor, who work day after day
in difficult, often subhuman conditions, to feed their families without any
hope of improving their lives, where endurance itself is the greatest
achievement.
Endurance as a positive decision rather than a passive
response, has marked the resilience of indigenous people, despite widespread depression,
shame, and loss of self-respect, at having lost their lands, traditions and beliefs
. Resilience gave strength to oppressed people to overthrow colonial powers, or
rise up against an uncaring elite in the revolutions in France, Russia, and China.
The African American reformer, Frederick Douglass, said “The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the
endurance of those whom they oppress”. The Freedom fighter Muhammad Ali Jauhar wrote
“ Hai meri ibtida teri intiha ke baad” , (I begin when you reach the extremes
of your oppression).
Oppression is internalized by colonized people, by the poor,
by stereotyped marginalized communities, even children in authoritarian
families, who begin to believe the myths propagated by their oppressors. Brazilian educator, Paulo Freire, says the
oppressed can change their circumstances through analysis, reflection and
action. Today, social media and access to the internet is enabling the
oppressed to be heard.
Endurance implies suffering and patience. Most religions explain
extreme suffering and despair, as
necessary to realize our ultimate dependence is on God. The Bible says "Be not afraid
nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours,
but God's”. The Quran "How often has a small host overcome a
great host by God's leave! For God is with those who are patient in
adversity."
One of the cornerstones of the Hajj, is a lesson in endurance,
as devotees retrace the steps of Hajra,
as she ran seven times between the mounts of Safa and Marwa, in the hot, arid
landscape of Makkah, to find water for
her infant son, until Allah intervened
and the Zam Zam well emerged. We are reminded, “God does not burden any
soul with more than it can bear” and “with hardship comes ease”.
Nature itself teaches patience and endurance in the sequence
of seasons, waiting for crops to grow, renewal after natural disasters, even
the time it takes for a child to reach adulthood. The phrases, inspired by images
of nature, “It’s darkest before the dawn” and “Every cloud has a silver lining”,
are frequently used to comfort the distressed.
As William Shakespeare says “How poor are they that have not
patience! What wound did ever heal but by degrees?”
Durriya Kazi
Karachi
July 29, 2022
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