12-10-18
The emotional well that holds sympathy and empathy can at times dry up. The words and actions that we choose to use can come off as less than caring, and ultimately cause more harm than good. Expressions of resilience can be interpreted as passive-aggressive statements of inadequacy. Just because one person was able to deal healthily with a situation does not mean that’s the case for everyone… “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps,” wasn’t ever really a thing.
When met with adversity there’s often a limited amount of moves one can make. It can feel like all we can do is curl up and retreat within ourselves, and to be fair sometimes that’s necessary, but only for a little while. At some point, we can no longer avoid whatever it is that conflicts us. It’s in these moments we have to soldier on.
I’ve never been fond of the connotation that comes with that idiom. There’s too much patriarchal oppression wrapped up in those two words, but when you look at what the phrase is trying to address it really is an apt expression.
Soldiers are the fighting force, they are the front line, and they are the ones the bare the brunt of the conflict. In those extreme moments of emotional turmoil, we’re pushed to soldier on in order to make it through the moment and onto the next.
How do we convey this though? How do we help someone else along with their own process of “soldiering on?” To tell someone that in their moments of need is a little careless and can easily come off as being devoid of sympathy or empathy. We must first show ourselves sympathy, care, and compassion. Through this healing process, we can make ourselves stronger to help others through their similar processes. This is one of my main reasons to “soldier on.” The hope that whatever struggle I may be enduring may somehow mitigate someone else’s struggle, if even just a bit.
Carrying the weight and pressures of our lives can grow too much for anyone no matter their status; after all, if our realities are all subjective, so are our struggles. Through unconditional positive regard we can approach others in moments of strife with sympathy, and empathy—we can help them carry their load, and like soldiers in a war, we can bare some of their weight in order for as many as possible to make it through.
Lyrics:
Who wants to know?
All that is gold, is rusted
No one will know
Seasons cease, to change, and
How far we’ve gone
How far we’re going
So here and the now
And the love for the sound
Are the moments that keep us moving
Waves crash along
Battered lonely lighthouse
Tomorrow she’s gone
And if not, some, they somehow
Are, these, hands, waste
Well this side of, mortality is
Scaring, me, to death
To death
Don’t think about it at all
Just keep your head low
Don’t think about it at all
Soldier on
Soldier on
Keep your heart, close to the ground
Soldier on
Soldier on
Keep your heart, close, to the ground
Don’t think about it at all
Just keep your head low
Don’t think about it at all
Yeah, will you take me tonight
Yeah, will you take me tonight
Yeah, will you take me tonight
Ooooh… tonight
Soldier on
Soldier on
Keep your heart
Close to the ground