This week I’ve been taking another look at and celebrating the power of humility.
And before I go on let me clarify, humility is not weakness or even meekness. True humility has absolutely nothing to do with one’s personality type or with humiliation or self-effacement or limiting one’s own personal power. I’m not even sure we should call humility a character trait because I don’t think it can be possessed. I think it’s something to chase after in the hope that if you get close you might be fortunate enough to be possessed by it.
No, humility is not a possession. Humility is a perspective. It’s simply what happens to you when you successfully locate your place in the big scheme of things. In other words, you are not the center of the universe. In the big scheme of things you are ignorant and powerless and extremely needy. You are small and humility is simply what happens to you when you realize it.
So because humility is akin to honesty and truth, most of us know humility is good. A few of us know it’s not only good but a powerful agent of change. And a few of us are beginning to wonder whether humility might just be the most powerful change agent of all.
If, like me, you suspect humility may not be just another good idea you’re not alone. St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Mother Theresa, Confucius, Gandhi, T.S. Elliot, Carl Sagan, Thoreau, Einstein, and any many more minds far greater than ours have also had their suspicions that humility may not simply be a good, but the good. The mother of all good.
In my own life I’ve come to realize humility hasn’t just brought a lot of good, it has brought most of the good. So I’m fairly convinced it’s not just another flower in the garden but more like the soil from which the whole garden grows.
I’m a believer in humility, so these days my questions aren’t about whether it’s good but whether it’s always good. In other words, does humility work equally well at every level? If personal humility is good, fine, but is it best for a relationship? And if the answer is yes, then is it best for all relationships - familial, professional, cultural, or even national? If it’s good for people to not think too highly of themselves, what about nations of people? These days there’s so much talk about national pride but is that what’s really wrong with the world? Not enough national pride? What I wonder is will there ever be any nation on the face of this earth truly great enough to be characterized as humble? What would the world be like if we all decided that humility is too important to be just a personal virtue but needed to be political, national or global? What a world that might be.
I think there’s a lot of evidence that humility changes everything it touches. Science, for instance, has changed everything for mankind and the scientific method is at its root humble. No, I didn’t say all scientists are humble. Far from it. I said the scientific method is humble. It says, “Let’s not assume we know anything about anything and then carefully experiment, test, second guess ourselves and learn what we can, even if what we learn makes us uncomfortable, and even then let’s remain open and never say we know it for sure.” That is humility in practice and it has changed everything.
I guess that’s my point. If you’re looking to change your life quickly, powerfully and permanently, try humility. Humility changes everything. Nothing defeats it. It seems like a hard pill to swallow but I assure you it is deep magic. Perhaps the deepest magic of all. I think T.S. Elliot was right, “The only wisdom we can hope to acquire is the wisdom of humility.” And I think humility is very likely the very best raw material from which you can build yourself a beautiful life.
