Heart of Gold

Heart of gold doesn’t have that Midas’ touch, not in real life. It is but a tool that can be used and manipulated, gaslit and shamed into a disastrous aftermath under the guise of “good intentions” or “moral goodness”. Like donating to a charity, wouldn’t it be wise to be discerning and do some investigation first that the charity is indeed legit and is not corrupted under a façade of “moral goodness”?

The feel-good feeling of “having done the deed of kindness or compassion” could very well have been just a cowardly act of virtue-signalling, whereas actually having done good via courageous honesty and facing the painful truth requires that one faces the fear and converts it into courage to overcome it.

The latter is the heart of gold, not the former. It is not that easy because it requires having to come face-to-face with the depth of darkness of one’s own abyss, understand, and confront that, before one knows that one has control over that, to not allow that darkness to cross the threshold into the ”good”, for that threshold is extremely thin. In fact, the etymology of the word ”courage” means heart, from French.

Real love stems from courage. Cowardice and conformity is diametrically opposed to courage, love, and compassion. Courage is also the cure for cowardice and conformity, before real love and compassion can be reached.

The reality is, and there is no shortcut for it—it is an individual’s personal work, to examine one’s own life to make it worth living.

Photo Credit Delphina Raven © 2022

Paul Lake and Gibraltar Rock, Kamloops, BC, Canada