Another Choice

While our physical consciousness has been partially lit by this instant of meeting and self-giving, most of our movements, responses, needs and impulses are still the same.

They may at any time betray not only our own oath, but that of our companions as well.

It is then a tough apprenticeship, because it is now imperative that we identify and cultivate qualities of which we had heretofore only a distant experience.

These are: indefectible loyalty, the will to serve no matter what, perseverance in all circumstances, humility before the breadth and depth of the task, solidarity, integrity, lucidity…

The others not knowing, alone with one’s duty of fidelity, one must feed the vulnerable fire in the invisible hearth, surmount terrible internal resistances and endure ugly contradictions, never tasting the plaudits of the crowd nor even any appreciation from those dearest to us.

***

Whether it be in the individual’s experience or in that of the group, of a people, a country and even of a civilization, these were such commitments that have brought about the greatest evolutionary changes. Whatever humanity in its totality has been able to gain through its ages, in terms of freedom, solidarity, real culture of the self, knowledge and creativity, it owes to such rare acts and to the quality of such, often unknown, commitments.

***

There are other sorts of heroism as well, seldom recognized as such, to which homage is almost never rendered.

So it is for all the unknown mothers whose abnegation, devotion and force of character defy all oppressions, who in conditions often extreme, braving all privations and hardships, bring up

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