Your Weakness is Your Power

I have spent this weekend in Bruges in Belgium. Bruges (or more correctly, Brugge), a world heritage sight, is one the most perfectly preserved medieval towns, complete with a relic of the Holy Blood of Christ (www.holyblood.com). From the mid 14th to the early 17th centuries it was one of the wealthiest towns in Western Europe. Producing rich traders and merchants specialising all all minds of goods, it attracted the finest artists of the time: Memling, Van Eyck, Petrus Christus.  Their works still adorn the churches and museums of the city. However, an unsuccessful revolt sometime in the 16th century against their Hapsburg masters, guaranteed them their place as a considerable backwater. Loss of trade, favour and monopolies meant that time stood still.  However in the long run it was the city's greatest blessing, as it made for a place untouched by the subsequent centuries..  Few of the buildings are from a period after the 1650's.  Cobbled streets, stone vaulted porticoes, hidden little gardens and picturesque canals all beautifully survive. Its loss of power and prestige was the best fortune that could have happened for its future inhabitants and the rest of the world.

Reflecting on this, and  still thinking about my trip to Washington DC, I was reminded how this same dynamic was true of the American War of Independence.  During the war, the young country lamented that it did not have the trappings and structures of its adversary; for example, a distinct capital city or an established military hierarchy. However, both these 'deficiencies' proved to be some of their strongest assets in the winning the war.  The fact that their was no city specifically considered a 'capital' meant that should the British capture Philadelphia where the Continental Congress was meeting they could simply move somewhere else, without the loss of the morale that the capture of a capital city signifies in a war. The British did indeed capture Philadelphia at one point in the war, and the government simply moved to New York.  Equally the lack of an established military hierarchy meant the people rose in the ranks purely by merit, instead of class, money or nepotism.  Again, that which was considered drawbacks turned out to be blessings.

Perhaps, the corollary for us as individuals is all too obvious, but I will nevertheless make the point.  Sometimes, that which we may consider our greatest weakness may just be that which will will be our salvation, that which will open up for us opportunities which we could not have really imagined or compassed.  Personally, at present, I am finding that difficult to believe, but still I keep trusting in it.  I keep trusting in it because I have for a long time been converted to the cosmic economy of paradox. The economy of paradox is the profound reality that truth is most profoundly discovered in paradox: do you want to really live, then learn to die;  do you want to receive, then learn to give.  The fact that our perceived weaknesses may eventually turn out to be our glory, is only part of that cosmic economy.  From where I stand now, I simply hope it does not take as long to manifest itself as it did for Bruges, or with the struggle and loss of life that it did for the American republic.