"Let nothing trouble you; smile to the very end, even if that smile is but a mask you hold before yourself: that is no small thing. Man can do no more than overcome himself in death. And even the immortal gods envy him this, against their will."
β Ernst JΓΌnger
Thomas F. Madden on the Crusades as a counter-attack against Islamic invasion:
βThe crusades were in every way a defensive war. They were the Westβs belated response to the Muslim conquest of fully two-thirds of the Christian world. While the Arabs were busy in the seventh through the tenth centuries winning an opulent and sophisticated empire, Europe was defending itself against outside invaders and then digging out from the mess they left behind. β¦ At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense.β
During the Third Crusade, Richard received word that a foraging party had been trapped by Saracens. He immediately rode out to aid them.
When he arrived on the scene, his advisors warned that he couldn't save the men. They were goners, and if he risked himself on a hopeless rescue mission he would doom the entire Crusade. Better to let them die!
The chronicler reports Richard's reaction:
βThe king changed color as his blood boiled, and replied to their persuasions: βWhen I have requested my beloved companions to go ahead to battle on the solemn promise that aid would follow, if I failed to do as I said and am not there to defend those who trust me so that they meet their deathsβwhich God forbidβbecause I am absent and idle, then may I never again usurp the name of king!β
"And without another word, he put spur to horse and with indescribable rageβI might almost say madnessβhe charged the Turks, scattered their close knit ranks with his powerful impact, passing through them like lightning and throwing down a great many with a single blow.β
Source: Book 4 of the Itinerarium Peregrinorum et Gesta Regis Ricardi, art by Stefan Kopinski.
THE COST OF FEELING DEEPLY
Some people are built to feel everything more intensely than others. The same heart that loves with full force is also the one that breaks more easily. Depth is not a weakness, but it does come with a price. The ability to experience life so fully means carrying both the beauty and the weight of it.
This is the quiet truth for those who feel more than most. For anyone who has ever been told they are βtoo sensitive,β this is the reminder that your depth is not a flaw. It is simply the cost of being fully alive, and it is also the source of your greatest strength.