COURAGE IMPRINTED

I failed at doing Click and Collect this week, so I had to actually go into the shop and push a trolley round.

I've not done that for a while. It felt quite strange pulling things from the shelf. Who else might have touched them? Who else has had their hands on this trolley? Why does it feel safer when the Click and Collect man pulls the crate out of the van and lets you pack it into your car yourself? It's probably no different.

Sainsbury's was quite empty really. With the jolly Christmas music playing and the bright lighting, it felt bleak rattling the trolley around the aisles. I was quick at least.

At the checkout, I was faced with even more anxieties that weren't anxieties a few months ago. Why wasn't the checkout lady wearing gloves? Was I okay with her pushing every single item across the barcode scanner with her fingers? Was she wearing her mask properly?

She was very friendly at least. At the end of what had turned out to be a long shift, she was winding towards the end of it with a chatty demeanour that conveyed tiredness and relief. Apparently, an hour beforehand it had been unbearably busy in there - people doing their 'big Christmas shop' she thought, though I wondered whether it might have been a bit early for that particular rush.

"I like that!" I said, while she reached across to pull the nectar vouchers out of the machine. She had a tattoo on the inside of her forearm - it looked crisp, dark, and new, and it simply said in shiny lettering:

With strength comes courage

She laughed under her mask.

"Yeah," she said, "It gets me through the tough days."

I wheeled out to the car park. What does it mean? How does it get her through the tough days?

I guess it means that strength and courage come together. If she's facing a really difficult storm, she might find strength to hold on, and maybe that produces courage in her heart to keep going?

But isn't it really the other way around? Sometimes the toughest things to do take a spark of courage, and then the strength to do them follows? Or rather, like John Wayne used to say, courage is the heart that feels afraid but saddles up anyway. So better to say, with courage comes strength?

It did remind me that it's pretty easy to judge people's lives without knowing them. The friendly checkout lady had made a decision to inscribe her forearm with a reminder to be strong and to be brave - there'll be a deeper reason than just needing to get through the tough days on the tills. For her, courage is not enough, and neither is strength: she needs both, and they flow together.

And I can go along with that.