Hard Shell, Meekness Inside

Two turtles traversing a golf green

Hard Shell, Meekness Inside

The sun was just beginning to peek out above the trees.  After all, it was morning, and perhaps it was rising at this time just to illuminate the two large turtles crawling across the grass to my right.  They were making their way across a putting green.   

“I haven’t ever seen that before!”  I said to myself as I paused to relish the sight.  “It’s a two-some slowing down play!”  I laughed, just before I remembered a conversation with my friend and mentor J.K. Morrison.

“The trick is to be tough on the outside while remaining soft on the inside.”  Dr. Morrison said as he offered his final advice during our talk together as I prepared to leave graduate school. 

And, these turtles seemed to be the perfect personification of Dr. Morrison’s sage advice.  Yet, there are some who would characterize the turtle as a weak, slow creature, something to be tormented because of its inability to lash out and seek revenge.  Such people, influenced by our modern society, have yet to discovered the turtle’s inner characteristics of beauty, patience and hopeful endurance.  Turtles may be the personification of the virtue of meekness.

The human quality of meekness has lost favor during our lifetime because those exhibiting this trait are branded as vulnerable and weak.  But, the truly meek offer inward resilience and strength. Pure meekness does not identify the weak, but more precisely the strong.  Those who have been placed in a position of weakness, where they persevere without giving up. Earlier language definitions of the word made this clear.  It means "tame" when applied to wild animals. In other words, it recognizes the fact that once fierce animals have not lost their strength, but have learned to control the destructive instincts that would prevent them from living in harmony with others.

In my attempt to live in harmony with these traversing turtles I hung back, holding Harry Pupper tight on his leash, while watching them sort of scamper, turtle-style, along their chosen path. Watching their trek gave me a moment to think of how you and I could use the virtue of meekness as a way to strengthen our personal relationships. Here are the five suggestions that these turtles conveyed to my mind:

• Stop thinking you know everything, or stop pretending to.

• Be willing to be challenged and learn—let your loved ones push you.

• Don’t see difference as a challenge to your values.

• Be humble enough to admit your flaws, not just your failures.

• Collaborate and be willing to share credit and success with those you live and work with.

My collaboration with these two turtles finished about the time I finished making note of these suggestions.  Just as their shells disappeared down the slight hill they had climbed. The sun was beginning to fully shine then, well above the once silhouetted trees toward the east.  After all, it was morning, and perhaps the sun was rising higher, at this moment, to fully illuminate and imprint the importance of maintaining a hard shell on one’s outside while remaining soft, meek, on the inside.  As they continued their crawled across the grass and down the hill, now unseen, to my right, I understood that they had blazed a bright trail toward more understanding of the importance of being meek.