Alderperson Brad Firkus' (District 3) Invocation At 07/20/2022 Common Council Meeting

Mayor Woodford: Oh, you're already quiet. Do I even have to do the gavel? Good evening. I now call to order the Wednesday July 20th, 2022 meeting of the Appleton Common Council. Tonight's invocation will be delivered by Alder Firkus.

Alderperson Brad Firkus (District 3): Good night—or good evening. Giving an invocation on this topic is a bit challenging to give in the face of some of the things that have occurred in this country in recent weeks, but something I've tried to spend a lot of time focusing on in the last year. And maybe when it's toughest to exercise these traits it's also the most important.

The traits I'm referring to are humility and grace. The two go hand in hand in that we're often reluctant to exercise one when we feel we are in a place devoid of the other.

To have humility is to have the fortitude to admit when we are wrong, to take the criticism we've earned and maybe some we haven't, to learn and to grow from it. Some see this as a weakness, that we must always double down and insist that we are right and only we are good.

Grace is the ability to forgive without preconditions, to give those around you the room to be wrong and to be better. Grace is patience with the ones who have hurt you, even when they have done so willingly.

In our always-on, hyper-connected world, humility and grace are hard to have. The stakes feel higher because they are. One poorly worded tweet can make you famous in the worst way and the target of endless harassment. Ideas expressed from a place of immaturity or inexperience can be dredged up several years later and cost you your reputation and more.

This is not to say that people should be free from consequences of their words or actions. Taking accountability for our words and actions is an important part of true humility. And grace is having reasonable expectations for what taking accountability looks like.

We live in a world that can often feel like we are constantly at each other’s throats. Some people have made it their job, and a thousand times as many have made it their hobby. We decry a lack of civility but too often will use it as justification to participate in the same toxic behaviors. Somewhere along the way, being authentic and living your truth got contorted into being ruthlessly rude, endlessly snide, and belittling, never being wrong and always being on the attack.

Having humility and showing others grace in this world takes a lot of strength, more than these other so-called alpha traits, but it's the change in attitude we need. It's a small change that we can all do. It's something we can all control within ourselves. And if it catches on, maybe society will start working better, and we will try to build each other up instead of tearing each other down and holding each other back.