The Calf Path

Captain America: Civil War has once again proven that the Disney-Marvel Comics alliance knows exactly how to adapt comic book characters and plot lines into cinematic gold.  On a budget of $ 250 million dollars the movie has racked up a worldwide take, as of June 5th, of over $ 1 billion dollars and reinforced the fact that comic books are far from a medium solely geared for children, they often deal with much weightier issues with outstanding writing and artwork.

While I personally loved the movie version of the storyline, I have to admit the comic book version still remains my favorite specifically because instead of trying to wedge everything in a two and half hour movie, it had a year’s worth of multiple titles to tell its story.  It reinforced my love for Captain America and all that he stands for and contains a few scenes in particular that, to me, are among the most emotionally moving and that rank with some of the best writing in any form of literature ever created. 

Cap has always represented the best that the country can be, and stands above every superhero for his embodiment of our highest ideals as a nation, and his ability to remain absolutely incorruptible in the face of overwhelming odds. 

If you haven’t seen the movie, or if you are not familiar with the source material I will briefly, and in a substantially simplified way, set the stage. 

A national tragedy has occurred as a direct result of a band of heroes trying to apprehend a team of villains, and as a result there has been massive destruction of property and loss of life, including innocent children, and the entire event has been documented and spread through viral videos on the web, as well as national media coverage.  As a result, the U.S. government has stepped in with new laws that not only seek to control all costumed heroes, but demands that they reveal their secret identities to the world so that they can be tracked and regulated by governmental officials.  

Cap stands against the violation of personal rights, as well as the danger of being controlled by the government that would use heroes for their own corrupt needs, and Tony Stark, who is already the acting Director of the government entity S.H.I.E.L.D., agrees to the government’s demands.  Sides are chosen by existing Marvel heroes and Spiderman becomes torn between the two forces.  At one point, after revealing his secret identity as Peter Parker to the world in a press conference set up by Stark, he goes to meet clandestinely with Captain America.  Peter is looking for advice, for counsel, from a legend that he has always looked up to and in an incredibly well written scene he asks Cap how he deals with the pressure that this situation has brought to bear on all of them.  This is the dialogue:

Peter: “When the whole country is against you…when it’s all bearing down on you like some kind of ten-ton weight, and you don’t know your own heart anymore sometimes…How does someone like you deal with it?  I mean you practically ARE the country.  How does the man who IS the country react when the country goes a different way?”

 Cap: “You really want to know?”

Peter: “I don’t want to know, Cap…I NEED to know.”

Cap then goes on to tell a story about himself as he grew up and the moment that he finally understood what it meant to be a “Patriot”, and he closes with a speech that still gives me chills to this day.  These words mean so much to me that I recently bought a custom printed shirt that has the image of Cap’s shield on the front and the entire speech written out on the back. 

Here’s what he says:

“It doesn’t matter what the press says.  Doesn’t matter what the politicians or the mobs say.  Doesn’t matter if the whole country decides that something wrong is something right.  This nation was founded on one principle above all else:  The requirement that we stand up for what we believe, no matter the odds or the consequences.  When the whole mob and the press and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and the tell the whole world…No, YOU move.”

Needless to say, Spidey makes his decision to commit to Cap’s cause right then and there and the tide of the Civil War changes in a big way.

To me it’s an inordinately inspiring speech that has a strong central theme…standing up for your beliefs, most vitally in the face of a crowd that wants to shout you down, push you aside or force you to submit to their point of view.

It’s the lesson we try to teach our children: Don’t knuckle under to peer pressure…be your own person, don’t engage in wrong actions even if the rest of your group of friends tell you it’s okay or make fun of you because you won’t participate. 

Well guess what?  We still struggle with standing away from a crowd even when have grown into adults!  Peer pressure doesn’t end after your teen years are over, and mob mentalities that want to impose their will and way on people still rear their ugly head to this day.  Some would say with the advent of viral videos and social media platforms that it is actually worse than ever, this ability for a crowd of people to force their viewpoint on individuals that disagree.

People try to attend an event for a political figure…and are pelted with eggs, bottles and fists from people who disagree with a viewpoint.  A speaker is invited to a college campus that a group of students don’t support the viewpoints of and the stage is stormed, microphones are grabbed and violence ensues.  We are fast creating a society that will accept no dissension, no opposing viewpoints, and the mob rules…whoever is willing to threaten the loudest, shove the hardest or brandish the most spite is the group that rules the day’s news.  Opinions are touted as principles and are enforced by fear and not through inspiration, and most people who just want to live their lives in peace learn to keep their head down and go with the flow instead of stand against the current. 

I am reminded of the writings of G.K. Chesterton, the so-called “Prince of Paradox”, who once said:

“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”

So are you dead or alive?  Does your will get bolstered or does it wither when your principles come into conflict with the flow of the crowd? 

Leaders that are optimally effective are able to separate their opinion from their principles.  Opinions are subject to change, and in fact can change often under the influence of additional education or information, situational or environmental changes, or age and experience.  Principles are foundational, core beliefs from which all your other fundamental truths are derived.  Opinions COLOR OUR VIEWS, sometimes in a transitory fashion…principles GUIDE OUR LIVES, and as such they should not be subjected to the whim of a temporary circumstance, nor determined by licking a finger and sticking it in the air to see which way the wind of “popular thought” is blowing.

There are far too many people today that have their head down following “The Calf-Path”, without ever digging deeper to determine what THEY THEMSELVES really believe!  Allow me to explain.

Many years ago I added a man named Sam Walter Foss to a list of poets that have written works that have profoundly affected my life.  Foss is not a name as immediately identifiable as some others on that list, such as Tennyson (his work “Ulysses” remains an incredibly inspiring piece to me), Whitman (“O Me! O Life!” is absolutely moving), Henley (“Invictus” is amazing) and Frost (No such list would be complete without “The Road Not Taken”), but his work is significant in American history nonetheless. 

Foss was a Massachusetts librarian in 1898 that at one time wrote daily poems for local newspapers, and has more than a handful of works that are of historical import such as “The Coming American” and “The House by the Side of the Road”, and of course the piece that drew me to him over the years, titled “The Calf-Path”.  While I would love to quote the entire lengthy poem here, and I would encourage you to look it up and read it in its entirety, for the sake of brevity I will place major excerpts together here to illustrate my point.

 “The Calf-Path” by Sam Walter Foss

One day, through the primeval wood,

A calf walked home, as good calves should;

But made a trail all bent askew,

A crooked trail as all calves do.

 

Since then two hundred years have fled,

And, I infer, the calf is dead.

But still he left behind his trail,

And thereby hangs my moral tale.

 

The trail was taken up next day

By a lone dog that passed that way;

And then a wise bell-wether sheep

Pursued the trail o’er vale and steep,

And drew the flock behind him, too,

As good bell-wethers always do.

 

And from that day, o’er hill and glade,

Through those old woods a path was made;

And many men wound in and out,

And dodged, and turned, and bent about

And uttered words of righteous wrath

Because ‘twas such a crooked path.

But still they followed -- do not laugh --

The first migrations of that calf

 

And thus a century and a half

They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet,

The road became a village street,

And this, before men were aware,

A city’s crowded thoroughfare;

And soon the central street was this

Of a renowned metropolis;

And men two centuries and a half

Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

 

Each day a hundred thousand rout

Followed the zigzag calf about;

And o’er his crooked journey went

The traffic of a continent.

A hundred thousand men were led

By one calf near three centuries dead.

They followed still his crooked way,

And lost one hundred years a day;

For thus such reverence is lent

To well-established precedent.

 

A moral lesson this might teach,

Were I ordained and called to preach;

For men are prone to go it blind

Along the calf-paths of the mind,

And work away from sun to sun

To do what other men have done.

They follow in the beaten track,

And out and in, and forth and back,

And still their devious course pursue,

To keep the path that others do.

So what’s the moral of the story that Foss is teaching us?  It’s the same one that good ol’ Captain America was trying to explain to young Peter Parker.

Mindlessly traveling the well-worn, crowd approved path simply because it’s what everyone else ahead of you is doing is an easy way to find yourself headed down a road that has no purpose. 

The calf created a path simply by meandering vacantly, other animals followed, drawn by the clearing obstructions and the path of least resistance, and foolish people mistook it for a road created with an actual purpose simply because it looked like other people had come before and made it.  Before long communities get built up around thoroughfares that actually had no meaning or direction and made them the common path of the folks that grew up around it.  No one, throughout all of the years, thought for themselves, questioned the masses, suggested a better way or backtracked to find where or why it all began.

The crowd set the precedent and people simply followed like cattle…all because of the calf. 

The lesson is don’t be a calf, nor a sheep, nor human cattle…don’t be “cowed” by the force of the mindless mob when choosing a path you know in your core, the deepest part of your heart, is right one to walk.

I am constantly trying to teach my children that there will likely be times in your life where the majority opinion might be wrong…the crowd that you find yourself in may shout for things, decisions or paths that you feel violates your principles…and they may look at you and ask you to join in, to choose their way or suffer the consequences.  Those consequences may include being ostracized, being labeled/marked, being verbally attacked, being socially avoided…or worse, unfortunately.  Stress, fear and intimidation can grip your heart and the easiest thing to do is simply, mindlessly choose the calf’s path…to move in the direction of the multitude and sacrifice principles for popularity…sell out guiding values for easy and immediate acceptance.

How do you avoid the calf’s path?  How can you draw upon your own core principles and find strength to stand against opposing forces?

First and foremost, you have to know what you stand for. 

That seems so simple, but you need to dig deep and make sure that your foundational, core principles are firmly established in your mind AND in your heart.  What do you believe that is unshakable?  What values truly guide your life?  What beliefs do you hold that are worth accepting any adverse consequences for having, rather than giving in and sacrificing them to go along with the crowd?  Yes, it’s a fact that some values should be non-negotiable, and never subject to the whims of times you in which you live, the opinions of a generational crowd or the situations you happen to find yourself in.  I love Spiderman’s question to Cap (paraphrasing): “When the world is against you and you don’t know your own heart, how do you deal with it? “

You must first learn what your core beliefs are, the ones that reside in your heart, that ARE non-negotiable.  Until you do that, you are at risk of swaying back and forth with whatever voice yells the loudest, or pushes the hardest…you get crushed under the weight of a world full of people that will gladly try to tell you what you should believe.  Prove to yourself what you believe and who you unequivocally are so that you can follow the next step, which is…

Secondly, you need to really know the people you choose to follow.

Simon Sinek has said, “People will do as their told by someone who outranks them, but they will only follow someone they believe in.”  Who are you following?  What do they stand for?  Do they have the backbone, the intestinal fortitude, the character fiber to lead you straight and steady no matter the cacophony of voices all trying to herd you in their chosen direction?  It’s important to really KNOW the person leading you, beyond their head of knowledge or years of experience…to know their HEART.  If you get to know a leader’s heart, the things that truly matter most to them, you can quickly discern if their principles line up with your own and if they will get you where you need to be regardless of the forces arrayed against you.

Again Spiderman, looking for confirmation of the right leader to follow, tells Captain America, “I don’t want to know, I NEED to know!”.  He needed to confirm in his own heart that his beliefs were in line with Cap’s, so that he could feel good about where he was headed no matter what happened from that day forward. 

At this point you might be asking, “Are you seriously trying to teach a leadership lesson from the pages of a comic book and an old poem?” 

The answer is, this lesson is so crucial that I would use any means necessary to impress upon you the danger of those last few lines of Foss’ poem:

For men are prone to go it blind

Along the calf-paths of the mind,

And work away from sun to sun

To do what other men have done.

They follow in the beaten track,

And out and in, and forth and back,

And still their devious course pursue,

To keep the path that others do.

Our human nature is to go with the crowd, even if it goes nowhere, or ends in an unpleasant place…and I want more for all of you, and me, than that.  If using Spiderman and Captain America gets you to remember to plant yourself by the river of truth and tell the world to move around you while you stand on your principles…If telling you the story of calf path gets you to open your eyes and choose your heart, your values, and your deepest beliefs over the whims of the mob, then I would do it today and every day!

Leaders stand for something bigger…do you?  (Do you KNOW what you stand for?)

Leaders take people you someplace greater…are you?  (Do you KNOW who you’re following?)

Something to think about today from the lips of cartoon superheroes and the bleating of a meandering calf.