According to the dedicant materials,
perseverance is defined as “Drive; the motivation to pursue goals even when
that pursuit becomes difficult.” For most of the nine virtues I agree that the
virtue is appropriately named and generally appropriately defined, even if I
tweak the definitions a bit to reflect my own experience and understanding of
the virtues. But if I had my way, perseverance would be replaced with tenacity.
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| Photo by Btindall45 via Wikimedia Commons CC-Attribution 3.0 |
Perseverance is
supposed to be the third of the second triad of virtues, corresponding to
Dumezil’s warrior class. But perseverance roots in the Latin “sistere” meaning
“to stand still”, which is, I think, generally not the kind of persevering
that’s virtuous… it’s merely continued existence. Tenacity is a more active
concept, rooting in “tener” , or “to hold”. It’s a verb that requires effort.
You have to take hold, and you have to continue to maintain that hold over the
long haul.
I think that’s the key with persistence,
it’s not enough to just get there and sit. An effort has to be made continually
to achieve your goals. If I stop my practice, if I stop living virtuously, if I
stop honoring the kindreds and touching the center of the worlds, I do not
stand still, I do not persist. I move
backward. The virtue of continuing effort is tenacity, and it’s absolutely
critical to get anything done. Nothing of value is easy – that’s I think the
central lesson of the dedicant program, that this spirituality is hard, it takes time, it takes work, and it
takes tenacity.
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