Rise

Greetings, friends.  I’ve had a funny memory rattling around in my head for the past several days.  I’ve been thinking about it so much that I’ve decided it must be God telling me to write about it.  Message received, God.

Once upon a time (about 6 or 7 years ago) my mother was very ill and I had to take her to the hospital.  Her knees had been damaged in several car accidents over her life so she had difficulty walking.  Because of this, the hospital put a bracelet on her that said “FALL RISK”.  She looked at me and said, “They should put one of these on you” to which I replied, “There’s a difference, Mom.  I can get back up.”

But my mom was right.  I should have a bracelet that says ‘FALL RISK.’  This is a pic I took while waiting at the hospital after I broke my wrist in May 2015:

I think that was my 13^th broken bone.  There have been several more since.  That’s why my nickname is “Accident” Pirrone.  At this point I should probably skip the bracelet and just get the words ‘fall risk’ tattooed on my forehead.

The thing about that brief exchange with my mom that keeps it in my mind is the punchline.  ‘I can get back up.’ That’s somewhat a metaphor for life, isn’t it?  I’ve been knocked down, but I always get back up.  That’s the key; not the fall, but the rise.  Victims are knocked down.  They become survivors when they get back up.  They may be bruised or have a few scars, but scars are not signs of defeat.  They are badges of honor; war trophies that proclaim to the world that we have survived. 

The painful truth is that the world WILL knock you down.  I don’t care if you are fat, Muslim, black, gay, a teen mom, a recovering addict or some other group; people will find something, some way that you are different, and they will beat you down until you fit into a little box with everyone else deemed ‘different’.  They will convince you that you have less worth.  Eventually you’ll start to believe that those labels are right and just.  You’ll start to see yourself in terms of that label.  That’s the fall.  It takes great effort and patience to see beyond the label.  You have to stop seeing these derogatory words as anything more than adjectives.  If you can do that, if you can start to see the offensive as mundane, then you can take the power out of the bully’s hands.  You reclaim yourself and your identity.  You get back up.

It sounds so simple, doesn’t it?  But it’s not simple.  Trust me, I know.  It’s almost the hardest thing we will ever have to do.  Even as we try to reject surface judgments, the world will continue to tell us those judgments are true.  And to a certain extent, they are true.  But they aren’t the whole story.  They aren’t what makes us who we are.  We choose that by what actions we take and how we live our lives.  Our inner selves are determined by what drives us, what we are passionate about, and what we are willing to take a stand for. 

We will each fall many times in our lives.  We will face prejudice.  We will be humiliated.  We will be ashamed.  We will be broken.  We will be lonely.  We will be scared.  It looks insurmountable.  It feels hopeless.  One could look at that list and ask why try?  To which I say, because those thing are all temporary.  Because there are greater things to come.  Yes, you will hurt.  But you’ll learn to toughen up.  You will stop listening to the maddening crowds.  You will stop looking up and saying ‘I can’t’ and start looking back and saying ‘I did.’  You will stop discounting yourself.  You will love and be loved.  And, when you’re ready, you will rise.