The Way of Integrity: Finding the Path to Your True Self

by Martha Beck

Maybe you’ll feel motivated to read a book, plant a tree, make a bold statement online, or back off an argument. Maybe the action step that occurs to you will seem too small, or too odd. Take it anyway. The moment you begin any creative activity, you leave the realm of violence, which knows only destruction. Shifting from righteous self-defense into creativity can catalyze life-changing, even world-changing action. I think that’s why famous moral leaders are often creative in small ways as well as large. Gandhi not only modeled civil disobedience but also made his own clothes, right down to weaving the cloth. Harriet Tubman, a multitalented genius, not only helped people escape slavery but also started her own restaurant, where she taught freed women to get paying jobs providing goods and services for the Union Army. Eunice Kennedy Shriver, heartsick about the lack of opportunities for people with intellectual disabilities, started a sports camp for children at her home that later grew into the Special Olympics. These people stood up against injustice without violence, and they were always creating things, even small things: cotton clothes, delicious food, a foot race.