I too draw strength from those who bear their unearned suffering (that MLK said was redemptive) with dignity. Nothing we are called upon to do as truthers from our privileged perches compares and I will never feel I am a martyr no matter how much my fellow humans may disappoint me. People, especially those who believe in a personal God, often wonder what spirituality could possibly mean when removed from the whole eternal reward business. To me it has everything to do with the detachment from the ego--seeing oneself as a tiny and fairly insignificant part of something unimaginably large--and being perfectly happy with that. When you realize that everything is you and that you are everything, that the evil that seems to threaten you is the same evil for which you have the potential, that those in the world who lord it over others do so out of fear of their own insignificance, doing the right thing ceases to seem like a burden and reveals through its pleasures AND its hardships that which we all yearn for--the sense of belonging--not to any exclusive and chimeric human grouping but to the eternal now.

It's kind of like when Obiwan Kenobi lets Darth Vader kill him because he knows full well that only then will he be one with the force and finally become master over his own dark side. Even Darth Vader himself managed to do that by preferring to die than to continue serving the dark side. I normally despise Hollywood movies but for better or worse Star Wars (the original trilogy) was a big part of my formative years and there is no sense in denying that it contributed to making me who I am and how I have decided to live my life!