There’s stubborn and then there’s stubborn.
I’ve been both.
So have you.
How do we know the difference between stubborn and stubborn?
David gave us a hint: “Let me give you some good advice; I’m looking you in the eye and giving it to you straight: Don’t be ornery like a horse or mule that needs bit and bridle to stay on track. God-defiers are always in trouble . . .” (Psalm 32:8-10a). So did Jeremiah: “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord!” (44:16).
Okay. Being stubborn never turns out well. That’s what the Bible says. Got that. For those of you liking corroborative information, here’s a little more about being stubborn.
“Stubbornness and stupidity are twins.” – Sophocles
“Never let your persistence and passion turn into stubbornness and ignorance.” – Anthony D’Angelo
“Don’t spend time beating on a wall hoping to transform it into a door.” – Coco Chanel
“They say, ‘You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.’ Truth: You knew exactly what you had; you just thought you’d never lose it. Stubbornness costs a lot more than it’s ever worth.” – Unknown
“Okay–that’s the negative part. But you began this post with a contrast. Soooo…”
So there’s a time and place to practice active stubborning.
“It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed.” – Einstein
“Stubbornness is also determination. It’s a matter of shifting from ‘won’t’ power to ‘will’ power. – Unknown
“Tell the negative committee that meets inside your head to sit down and shut up.” – Ann Bradford
“We’ll either find a way or make one.” – Hannibal
“Failure is not an option.” – NASA Flight Director Gene Krantz
In case you don’t recall the original list from July 7th under FIGURE IT OUT and GET OFF THE FENCE, here it is:
Your flag: fly it.
Your courage: find it.
Your true history: study it.
Your personal faith: stand in it.
Your moral compass: learn to use it.
Your stubbornness: apply it.
Your work ethic: restore it.
Your politics: get over it.
Your wisdom: live by it.
There’s a time and place to practice active stubborninity. I don’t care what you’ve been told, and even less by whom: Americans are the most caring, compassionate, giving, and helpful people on the planet. We’re not by nature a pugnacious, quarrelsome people. That’s why it takes a lot to get under our hide and make us mad.
It’s my opinion we’re getting there. It’s my further opinion we need to begin practicing some good new-fashioned American stubbornaciousness – about all the good, worthwhile, decent things we’ve been being told are just the opposite.
Claude Helvetius said “Stubbornness differs from persistence because a stubborn man defends the lie, but a persistent person the truth.” And Ambrose Bierce left us this only a little humorous definition: “Decisiveness: perseverance in achieving the goal you approve. Stubbornness: persistence in achieving a goal you do not approve.”
So you’re getting this, right? There’s a good and necessary kind of stubbornness I believe our nation needs to see patterned. And I really think our nation’s enemies and detractors – open and Fabian – need to get a good look at what a mad, I’ve-had-enough American looks like.
Gangs, thugs, sleazy con men and politicians need to remember this: as long as the regular folks aren’t sufficiently aroused to take a hand, they can just keep on with their systematic raping, destroying, pillaging and looting.
But when regular, decent American men and women finally have had enough and get their backs up, every criminal element involved, including slick political mask-wearers of every stripe, knows it’s time to bail.
I believe we’re approaching that point in our national consciousness. No matter what the elites try to tell us we ought to be thinking, nor how stubbornly they try to belittle us and our history, we still remember who we really are and what our America really was before they began trying so feverishly to destroy it.
I believe it’s time to begin practicing some serious stubbornaciosity.
YOUR STUBBORNNESS (the RIGHT kind!): APPLY IT!
© D. Dean Boone, July 2015