Resiliency
Definition – Oxford Languages: Noun
- The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties: toughness.
- The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity.
After years of studying human nature and decades of trying to fully understand the human condition, I have come to a fantastic truth – human beings are extraordinarily resilient. The deeper question is does everyone have this astonishing ability to bounce back and are some people better suited than others to discover, develop and deploy this survivor skill set?
For some reasons known and perhaps others unknown, I really started to appreciate and explore this query as I finished a recent vacation in the country of Malta. Prior to taking this once in a lifetime trip, I’m embarrassed to admit, even with help from Rand McNally, I couldn’t have picked Malta out on a map and beyond that geographic mystery, I had little idea of its rich history and long and tortured occupation by outsiders. I can state unequivocally that after enjoying the many extraordinary experiences on this island and getting to know a small slice of its turbulent history, I am certainly more informed now than before I found this cool place on Earth. And more to the point, I can report that this magical country has endured much and has rebounded well and shown the world what resilience really looks like.
For those who share my limited knowledge of this country, let me start the tutorial. Malta is in Southern Europe in the Mediterranean Sea and is oddly close to Sicily, Libya, and Tunisia. Malta has three occupied islands, Gozo, Comino and Malta and many unoccupied ones. Malta’s colorful history is long, deep, and complicated. Malta was first inhabited in 5900 BC. Malta is centrally located in the Mediterranean and has had outsiders and invaders making a play for its strategic location for centuries. And you need look no further than the occupations by the Greeks, Carthaginians, Romans, Phoenicians, Arabs, Normans, and Aragonese in the Middle Ages and the intrusion by the Knights Hospitaller, French and British in the modern era to fully appreciate the road well-traveled by this battle tested country. After being utilized in World War II as an allied base, Malta finally achieved independence from the English in 1964.
My time in Malta was spent traveling in and out of the villages and taking a boat to view this gorgeous and masterful landscape from the sea. Throughout my travels in Malta it was made obvious to me that the proximity to Italy has influenced Malta’s art, food and culture. I was told that over 60% of the people speak some form of Italian. The other unmistaken influence was from our English friends. The British occupied Malta from 1814 to 1964 and declared it as an English colony during that time, and their presence is still seen throughout the streets, stores and public buildings of their capitol city, Valletta.
The point of all things good from this Mediterranean delight is given their incredible history and many conflicts, it is fair to state that Malta survives brilliantly today and personifies the very essence of resiliency. They have been battered, beaten down, occupied from all corners and for centuries, yet they are a hugely popular and growing independent country with astonishing beauty, international stature, and have maintained a state of place and grace in this crazy world of ours. Time to relate this to the central theme of today’s column – resiliency.
In politics and in life, we are destined to find high points and determined to find and discover low points. In a political context, how many of us can think about those special moments of winning an election or savoring a significant life changing service for an in-need constituent, and soon after finding ourselves battling to stay alive politically or suffer from an unanticipated attack or defeat? Let’s see a show of hands please.
As for me, my first experience with this phenomenon was on a smaller scale, but I learned early how to bounce back after a suffering a political beating. Let me set the table to make a larger point. And yes, I’m aware that the example below doesn’t rise to level of Lazurus rising from the dead type, but it makes my point, I think.
In 1991, I was the mayor of my hometown, and a majority of my fellow council members were voting to replace a popular and long-time township judge, who was a town resident with nine children. I initially resisted joining the majority as I wasn’t convinced that it was the right decision. In a closed executive session, I was pressured to side with the majority and was told directly that if I didn’t join the majority, I would be precluded from selecting the replacement. I stupidly and naively fell for the gambit and changed my vote. Let me add an ounce of inexperience and a dose of cowardice to the mix so there would be a high percentage play that the local drama would soon spin out into a quagmire.
After the closed vote became public, I added some political gunpowder to the mess by being quoted in the local newspaper as I commended the long tenure of the then sitting judge and his replacement shouldn’t be looked upon as a “mark” against his reputation. By virtue of that public comment, I immediately owned this wildly unpopular scandal. Forest Gump said it best: “stupid is what stupid does.”
First things first, I willingly allowed myself to get hit and run over by the idiot bus and didn’t know what hit me. The following week I had 33 letters of outrage from citizens in the local paper and most were pointed directly at me. These emotional and sometimes nasty letters to the editor were from my neighbors, classmates, and people I grew up with, and some asked me to step down as the Mayor. These letters coupled with a standing room of protestors at the next public board meeting led to some soul searching. I immediately wanted to quit politics, but before doing so I had to change the narrative. At that public meeting, I publicly reversed myself and said it was a mistake, and I owned up to it. The shrinking majority saw the political tidal wave that was coming and they quickly retreated as well. But for a small town this was a crisis, and the furor continued to grow and rage like an out-of-control brush fire in Passaic County. My once sure shot reelection in 24 months was looking dim and I needed to contemplate my political future and whether it was viable or not.
After some time order was restored and the town square no longer looked like the Bastille on July 14, 1789, but I needed to think about me. I was bruised, hurt, embarrassed and not feeling great as I took on much water after my self-inflicted wound. I consciously remember talking with my friends and small group of supporters about the way back.
Be mindful, I grew up in a neighborhood where fistfights were as common then as Covid testing in 2021 and that was how disputes were readily resolved. Additionally, as a child in a large Catholic family who firmly believed in spare the rod spoil the child mantra, I was used to getting knocked down quite a bit and bouncing back. So, at that moment, reflecting on my youth, I asked myself why is this political knockdown any different? I know, primitive logic.
Over the years, I have experienced a few political victories and endured a few political setbacks. I knew at some stage that neither the wins nor losses would confine me. Despite on a dozen occasions, I have been convinced that my political career was ended, yet somehow manage to rise from the ashes to live another day.
Through the years I have seen once promising political careers of assemblymembers, and senators ruined by wrong choices, miscalculation, misplaced trust in others, stupidity, greed, avarice, and boorish behavior. But we need to take note that while most fatal mistakes in campaigns are in fact fatal, some get a second chance and are poetically and politically reborn. We have also witnessed political comebacks and folks once written off who are now more politically relevant and vibrant than ever.
In a corporate or professional setting, I have witnessed C-suite executives and lawyers alike commit heinous social and professional breaches yet some managed to crawl back to respectability. I vividly remember seeing three lawyers in particular who were targeted or emmeshed in a red hot federal criminal investigation and despite their grand jury testimony and personal fault lines, two of the three managed to practice law to this day. Go figure.
Pivoting back to politics, over the years, Steve Adubato Sr. drilled into me and others that politics and your political position don’t define you, it is the friends and family around you that truly define who and what you are. I would add to that creed, that it is also your ability to bounce back and survive a seemingly cataclysmic catastrophe that really defines the essence of your very being.
The trick in life is to understand that getting knocked down is expected and you need to steel yourself immediately and dust yourself off and come out swinging with a smart game plan. If you made a mistake, own it and proactively address it. If your staff or organization made a mistake, take responsibility, and fix it.
As a principal of a political organization the buck stops with you. President Harry S. Truman had it right in 1952 when he said he was ultimately responsible for his administration, and he pointed to a sign on his desk with motto – The Buck Stops Here. When it comes to whether you are one of the few who possess this rare genetic ability to get beat up, bunker down, regroup and come up bigger and stronger than before is entirely up to you— the buck begins and ends with you.
End of the day, we should all learn from the strong people of Malta, keep focused, think long term, and don’t forget who and what you are and be strong enough to bounce back from anything.
A few random facts about Malta:
121 square miles
Population of 516,000
Capital City – Valletta
Roman Catholic – over 90% of the population
Engage over 1.6 million tourists a year
Has 365 churches
Occupied by the following:
Arab conquest- AD 870
Great Siege of Malta- 1565- by the Hospitallers (gifted by Roamn Emperor and King Charles V of Spain
French Occupation in 1798
British in 1800
Bombed by Germans and Italy in 1940-1942
Self-governed status in 1947 and gained independence on September 21, 1964