Grace
Mike Snyder

Grace

Hon. A. Michael Snyder Hon. A. Michael Snyder

Hon. A. Michael Snyder

Respected Neutral, Mediator, Arbitrator, Discovery Master

发布日期: 2022年4月1日
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Over the past few weeks certain things keep reverberating through my mind. The crisis in Ukraine. The confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. The Academy Awards and the slap seen around the world.

In each situation, one particular not-so-often seen attribute has been shown to be possessed by one of the principals in the event. That characteristic is grace under pressure.

Ever since the war in Ukraine began, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and his wife, Olena Zelenska, have demonstrated strength, quiet determination, and great grace in dealing with the devastation in their country. Mr. Zelenskyy has shown his people, and the rest of the world, the dignity and the grace under pressure befitting a great leader. He has steered his people through an invasion not of their own making, projecting strength and a clarity of mission that gives the citizens of Ukraine hope and optimism, enabling them to survive and to hold back the invading forces of Russia. When Mr. Zelenskyy speaks to the world his calm, focused strength enhances his message of the need for help in resisting the invaders.

In the Senate confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, we have seen a brilliant, thoughtful woman maintaining her calm demeanor, no matter the level of unwarranted attacks that have been aimed at her by certain members of the Judiciary Committee. Senators who only last year confirmed Judge Jackson to the D.C. Circuit Court seemed intent on accusing Judge Jackson of every possible offence, from being soft on crime, to allowing child pornography, to advocating critical race theory being taught in elementary schools to young children. Indeed, Judge Jackson was subjected, as a Black woman, to questions that were offensive in the extreme, questions that seemed to have only one purpose, and that being to provide a forum for the racist views of certain Senators.

Throughout her almost three days of interrogation, Judge Jackson remained, as she is widely known to be, calm, analytical, patient, and possessed of what can only be called, grace. Indeed, Senator Cory Booker remarked on Judge Jackson’s demeanor, dignity and grace in the face of questioning that was patently offensive.

Grace, as demonstrated by Judge Jackson, consisted of the unique ability to keep oneself above the fray, to withhold responding to the basest of insults or offenses, but rather to hold oneself high, resisting the easy reaction of responding to these insults with sarcasm or anger. Judge Jackson demonstrated the unique power of grace in the face of those who act on a much lower plane than herself.

Finally, on Sunday evening, millions of viewers saw Will Smith, an amazing actor, and a loving husband and father, slap Chris Rock in the face when Rock made a hurtful joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith and her shaven head. There is no question that Smith should not have slapped Rock, but Will’s defense of his wife, seeing her reaction to the “joke” can, at the very least, be considered an understandable response.

However, the grace that we saw that evening was demonstrated by Jada Pinkett Smith, who looked regal in her emerald green Gaultier gown. Despite having been made the target of a joke that insensitively called attention to her lack of hair, the result of alopecia, Ms. Smith held herself rigid, maintaining a truly amazing dignity. Merely because one may be in the public eye as an entertainer or celebrity should not mean that they may be insulted at the deepest level with impunity. Anger at Rock’s tasteless comment would be understandable and, even appropriate. Whatever Jada Pinkett Smith was feeling at the moment, she maintained her calm and dignity.

Grace is a word most often used in a religious or faith-based context. Indeed, we often use the term to mean an individual who acts in a way that we believe someone pure of soul might act or have acted. To act with grace requires a strength of character, and a decency of spirit. How fortunate are we when we get to see such grace demonstrated by those around us.

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Mike Snyder

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