What if your reputation depended on your loyalty? Or your job? Or even your security? Would you be Brave, or would you be Loyal?
What if your self-respect depended on being brave in the face of all the above?
Sometimes the obvious needs to be stated and repeated, lest we get lost in a morass of life-sucking illusion.
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Loyalty is a wonderful thing. It’s a vital part of most relationships, from romantic to work relationships, and everything in between.
It builds bonds of Trust based in Honesty, Dedication, Faithfulness and Support.
It allows both parties to ‘be themselves’ without fear of judgment or abandonment.
In Huna/spiritual terms, it is a Life-Giving energy of Love and Support as the definition for Love in any relationship is that which supports the continuing spiritual growth and evolution of both parties.
When Loyalty Goes South, Like Nazi Germany
Loyalty isn’t always a good thing. The place where it crosses the line is when rather than encouraging growth, it enables dysfunction.
Loyalty is Loving when it’s Life-Giving; supportive of the highest and best qualities of the one you are loyal to. Loyalty is life-taking when it allows or enables nefarious energies that are damaging to all involved.
Courage, on the other hand, is that which requires one to step up and DO something that’s hard to do. It may seem hard, or it may seem not hard at all, based on the degree of conviction one experiences. In that case, one experiences a RUSH of Life-Giving Energy that propels one to do the thing, despite the level of difficulty.
Three Young Women Demonstrate Love By Being Brave
In a recent episode of This Week With George Stephanopoulos, Jon Karl sat down with three women who worked in the Trump White House. Their ‘act of bravery’ was simply to tell the truth.
As mentioned in the piece, Liz Cheney, former Congresswoman and Vice Chair of the January 6th Committee, singled out these young women, and others, as ‘truth tellers’ after they provided some of the most compelling testimony of the historic hearings:
“And I will tell you it is especially the young women, young women who seem instinctively to understand the peril of this moment for our democracy; young women who know that it will be up to them to save it. And I have been incredibly moved by young women that I have met and that have come forward and testified.”
ABC correspondent Jon Karl, who hosts the conversation, states how dangerous it can be for anyone, especially those who have worked for Donald Trump, to speak truthfully about him after he has publicly vowed to seek retribution against all who have betrayed him. “Despite that, these young women went public, even as many of the men they worked with, some in more senior positions, stayed silent or actively enabled and excused, Trump’s actions.”
Was that being loyal?
Even as they face death threats, these three young women agreed to a conversation with Karl. Here is some of what they said, why it matters and how they demonstrate for all of us, how to choose to be brave instead of “loyal”.
Sara Matthews, the Deputy Press Secretary under Kayleigh McEnany, was just 25 when she resigned the night of January 6, 2021.
Cassidy Hutchinson was the 24-year-old top aid to Chief-of-Staff Mark Meadows whose riveting testimony was front page news across the country after she spoke at the Committee Hearing.
Alyssa Farrah Griffin served multiply high-level roles in the Trump administration until she resigned on December 4, 2020. She’s the one who brought Sara and Cassidy to the Committee to disclose information only they knew.
Cassidy reflects, “Both of these women made such a profound impact on how I ended up viewing all this. I wouldn’t be here with you today if it wasn’t for Allysa and Sara and Liz Cheney and January 6th Committee.”
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TRUE LOYALTY is when those who know you, love you enough to encourage you to do the RIGHT thing. Whether it seems like ‘Love’ or not, it is indeed Loving, to yourself and to the other person, to encourage that which is grounded in Honesty, Integrity and Reality.
Jon Karl conveyed that Cassidy’s testimony was the “emotional dramatic highlight of that entire Committee.”
Cassidy however, feels she “doesn’t deserve the credit” and refers back to Sara and Alyssa.
Stepping up and telling the truth.
Allysa clarifies that Cassidy did in fact, play a monumental role…
“You played such a critical role there and I will never not be angry that people senior to us did not step forward and tell the truth and realize what a vital part of not just American history, but preserving this country, telling the truth is.”
Sara confirms to Cassidy, “Really, you’re being humble, but you deserve so much credit for the courage that that took because like you said, I think all of the witnesses who came forward faced scrutiny and threats and harassment but yours was to the next level because of the bombshell type of information that you had.”
Jon Karl addresses the “massive blow back” they all faced with security threats. Sara said she dealt with it by basically tuning out social and other media coverage.
When she called Kayleigh McEnany to tell her she was resigning, she said Kayleigh told her, “Okay. Thank you for letting me know. I wish you well.” They haven’t spoken since.
“We have not spoken a word since that day. But I think that I am very at peace with that decision and same goes for testifying before the January 6th Committee. I think that I knew that I could not walk into the White House gates the next day after January 6th, especially as someone who is a spokesperson because I knew that I would have to defend that, and defend what we saw that day, and his dereliction of duty and I couldn’t live with myself and so that was why I made that decision, and then going forward to testify before the January 6th Committee I stand by that decision even if that meant losing some friends along the way. I mean there are very few people that I’m in touch from the Trump admin, two of them sitting right here.”
Key words here: “at peace with”, “couldn’t live with myself”, “I stand by that decision even if it meant losing some friends”.
Stating and repeating the obvious until the blinders of illusion fall off.
Here’s where it works to point out that Loyalty to a Principle is far more important than loyalty to a person. Indeed, loyalty to a person, in terms of how Trump and others view it and use it, is life-taking, encouraging of that which is damaging to all involved.
Giving permission to commit horrible acts is not loyalty!
Without Principle, what you are left with are unscrupulous ‘yes’ people calling themselves ‘loyal’.
Instead of supporting the highest and best of each other by telling the truth they may not want to hear, they enter into a codependant arrangement where both parties lie to each other. Why? Because of something I call “Ego-Mind”, that which the lies serve.
And here are the PRINCIPLES: Honesty, Integrity, Reality.
Honesty means telling the TRUTH. Integrity means telling the truth even if in the face of possible loss. Reality means Accepting the Truth rather than manipulating it for ego/selfish reasons.
Another Biggy: Release attachment. Fear/ego, is based in illusion, therefore its only concern is its own survival. All of the trappings of whatever the situation is, are just excuses it uses to justify itself and its actions.
It naturally requires one to Consciously step out of identification with ego in order to make a choice that is grounded in Intregrity. Those who are thoroughly identified with ego though, will find this hard to do because it feels like death, death to that which you have been identified with is in fact, the death of the illusion. It can be hard, uncomfortable and scary. But stepping into one’s divine nature is a feeling of Strength, Power and Fulfillment.
Truth is the very solid foundation of Reality. Deceit is the illusion where ego resides.
Everything Ego-Mind says and does is for the purpose of the illusion it needs to create to maintain its illusory existence. In other words, it lies. It lies continuously because to Ego-Mind, lying is just part of the equation of the manufactured existence it must cling to for its survival.
That which is Real, exists. That which is not Real, is illusory.
Ego only exists… as an illusory idea… in the World of Form… for the purpose of Contrast… so that we Spiritual Beings… can experience Meaning.
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What do we lose and what do we gain, when we tell the Truth?
Jon Karl asks Cassidy about the death threats after her testimony, “you had to leave town and get security… I mean you had to go into exile because of the threats you were facing.”
Cassidy did what she did ON PRINCIPLE, “The American people can only elect officials if they are educated on who those people actually are and to be able to shed light on the lack of character that Donald Trump displayed that day; the lack of leadership that he displayed that day, was never a second guess as to whether it was right or wrong and to this day I truly believe I gained so much more than I lost. I gained a whole new sense of community, a whole new sense of leadership, a different perspective on how our government should be run, what a responsible president actually looks like; but also how perilous this moment we’re facing as a country, is.”
Courage and Truth revealed for Cassidy what Reality really is: “community”, “leadership”, “a different perspective on how government should be run”, “what a responsible president actually looks like”.
But it wasn’t that way for her in the beginning, even after January 6.
In her book, Enough she discusses her feelings after Alyssa had made a public statement on January 7th: My phone vibrated with a text from Alyssa moments after she was off the air. She apologized for not having given Mark and me a heads-up, and explained that she had felt compelled to say something. My phone clattered as I dropped it on my desk in disgust. She promised she wouldn’t betray us. She promised she would always be loyal.
Loyalty and betrayal. Loyal to what? Betrayed by what?
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Cassidy elaborates in the conversation: “I still felt that sense of loyalty to the administration and I don’t say that with pride and… that was sort of the beginning when I had these split emotions about how to actually process what happened that day and how to process my own involvement in it and what I can do moving forward.”
“split emotions”, “process”, “moving forward”. These speak to her revelatory evolution. It’s impossible for ego to admit Reality, that requires Authentic Self to step up and do what’s hard – Courage.
Back to the conversation, Cassidy turns to Alyssa and says, “I was really upset Alyssa on one hand because we were very, very close… (she turns to Jon Karl) because she had worked for Mark Meadows before I had.”
(she turns back to Alyssa) “So you were sort of my shepherd in a lot of ways with just helping navigate that environment and I was so grateful for all of that but there’s also the side of me where I was really proud and somewhat envious of the courage that you displayed.”
“proud and somewhat envious of the courage.”
In Huna we say, Ha’aha’a, to be humble, to be flexible in perspective. It is a skill. Not everyone can do it. Just ask any hard-core partisan, “Are you willing to change your mind?” The vast majority are not.
Being Willing to see a different perspective is the beginning of enlightenment and growth, because one can only be Willing if they relinquish ego. As long as Ego-Mind is in control, it will NEVER shift its perspective (because it would cease to exist), it’s about survival for ego, so no, it won’t, ever.
But YOU can.
It’s a matter of identity. Simply shift to the perspective that makes your ego feel uncomfortable, consciously, deliberately. It only feels bad to ego, not the Real You. As soon as you turn loose of the unwillingness by deliberately choosing to be Willing, you will see a whole new thing, way of seeing and thinking that’s expansive and brilliant.
Jon Karl asks them, “Why was it the women in the Trump White House that led the way on this?”
Allysa gave a remarkable answer, “For some reason, in moments that call for it, women tend to show an astonishing amount of courage. I mean I credit these women who are younger than me, had not a senior of titles and stepped forward. I don’t think it’s in any of our constitutions to be able to lie about what we witnessed and not feel compelled to tell the public. For me, what it fundamentally came down to, I want to be able to look my future kids in the eye and say, when history called for it, I did the right thing and I had the courage to do it. That matters to me more than any future job or power structure that might exist if he’s president again.”
“look my future kids in the eye”, “I did the right thing”, I had the courage”, “means more to me than any future job”
In Conclusion
To conclude I would like to share Cassidy’s final remark which aptly describes the gravity of why it is so important for EVERYONE, that the Principles of Truth, Integrity and Reality win out over Ego-Minds lies, deception and fallacies of misplaced trust,
“Right now there’s a large portion of the population that’s not recognizing their mistakes, that’s not working to continue to better our country and right now we’re completely splitting down the middle; on one side that is the truth and that is reality and on the other side is propaganda and lies. This is a fundamental election to continue to safeguard our institutions and our constitutional republic. But if we crumble as a nation, we’re setting the example for generations to come, not only the United States but on the global stage that democracy is an experiment and it’s not guaranteed. We’re extremely fragile as a country and so it’s a democratic experiment.”
Aloha