Journeys Into Enlightenment with Janet
Releasing March 24, 2020
Episode 32 Blog/ Today’s Chivalry
My youthful awareness of Chivalry was of stories of King
Arthur’s court and a code of behavior and of a knight in shining armor
participating in jousts with the acknowledgment of a favor from an observing lady.
And it was important as it was a signal to the others watching of her strength as
he represented her. He was her knight, a symbol of her power and strength among
the court.
I was reminded of it again this past winter in the people
of the military and diplomatic corps speaking their truths without question,
demonstrating fearlessness, willing to take the consequences from powerful
forces around them. It struck me deeply these heroic men and women of all
backgrounds and accomplishments, their heads held high, their gazes direct. Sitting
not in defiance but in Grace. It went beyond gender.
Chivalry is really an umbrella word in meaning. It
encompasses many desirable qualities including Courage, Honor, Courtesy, Justice,
and a readiness to help the weak. In my conversation with Bill Protzmann of
Music Care Inc we found our conversation also was inclusive of Love, Kindness,
Compassion, social behaviors and gender concerns.
Courage, honor, courtesy, justice, a readiness to help the
weak never go out of fashion. They help define us as a society filled with
individuals living together. Our evolution of our awareness of Chivalry comes
in recognizing all those before mentioned qualities to include what happens
between the sexes and that it is not only men who demonstrate Chivalry. We all are
and can be champions for our partners, the elderly, children and community.
We each know when someone has helped us in some small way
be it holding the door or the anonymous donor or have our boo-boos kissed and we
feel better. It may be the highlight of the recipient’s and giver’s day. We are
demonstrating an enriching connection between each of us. Compare it to
rudeness and non-engagement. They feel different.
I don’t think of Chivalry as dead or just happening only in
the Middle Ages. My sense is that out of that time in history of civilization
it came into being recognized as a powerful social endeavor. Life was as dicey then
as it is now but without the technologies we enjoy. Culture was building around
those in power and dictating behaviors and forming societies based on that
marshaling of title and power and the holding of resources.
Many of the quotes I looked up for the Ageless section of our
podcast episode seemed to focus on the current loss of Chivalry. As though it
was a long-ago forgotten concept in our age of mechanization and technology.
Since the women’s movement in the late 60’s we gained much in
male/female disparities but maybe also a loss in gender courtesy. Women are still
being treated as second class citizens in many fields of endeavor and Rape is nothing
new in society. But the rules that we look to govern our civility between the
sexes are updating in this age of #MeToo.
Our challenge would seem to be bring it into the modern era
of interacting with one another. Gender contains so much bias and its changing
awareness in influencing modern societies is slow in manifesting, in recognizing
our biases in others and how that is reflecting our own. How the sexes treat
each other comes out of internal directives of hormones and behaviors, values, learning and socialization.
How do men treat women and how do women treat men? How do both
men and women say one thing in social intercourse and mean another? How do we
behave towards each other?
Men and women balance each other. One is not better than
the other. We embody the same qualities in our different forms. Men will
protect women and children. Women will protect their men and children also. As
will children trying to protect their parents and families. What ever we love
or have a sense of connection to we will do our best to keep safe.
Bringing the qualities of Chivalry into this moment: Courage,
Honor, Courtesy, Justice and extending a helping hand to one another is not
that difficult. Not when Love and Kindness and Compassion and the willingness
to stand in front, on the front lines of human interactions and life around us
is present.
When BEing in our truth comes from within where there is no self-agenda
or fear, there is only the triumph of Spirit. Not the pettiness or
righteousness of Self disguised as Spirit but the Grace of BEing.
Janet Barrett
Podcast host of Journeys Into Enlightenment with Janet
