Clear Eyes, Strong Hearts

If you’re feeling unmoored right now, it’s not weakness. It means you’re paying attention.

Gasoline prices are up 50% since January. Workers across the country are wondering what artificial intelligence means for their livelihoods. Farmers along the Colorado River keep one eye on the sparse snowpack and the other on the weather forecast. We are facing what could be a record-setting wildfire year. War rages, again, in the Middle East. And in Washington, policies that seemed settled — in energy, in trade, in governance itself — are being remade at a pace that makes it hard to plan for next quarter, let alone next decade.

We are all, in our different ways, navigating a world that feels out of control.

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we find our footing when the ground keeps moving. And I keep coming back to an unlikely source: a fictional high school football coach from West Texas.

“Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.” That’s the motto from the television series Friday Night Lights. It’s a line that sounds simple, maybe even a little corny, until you sit with it.

Clear eyes means seeing things as they actually are, not as you wish them to be, and not through the distorting lens of fear or anger. It means resisting both denial and the tendency to catastrophize. In a moment when our public discourse argues one extreme against the other, seeing the world through clear eyes is a radical act.

Strong hearts — or full hearts, as Coach Taylor says — is more than toughness. It means staying open. Open to being surprised, to changing your mind, to recognizing virtue in unexpected places. A heart that’s hardened against the other side isn’t strong; it’s brittle. Real strength is the courage to keep showing up, combined with the humility to keep listening.

Can’t lose is the part that most needs unpacking. It’s not about winning every game. It’s about something that outlasts any single contest. If you hold to your values — stay honest, stay engaged, treat people with dignity — you can lose a vote, a contract, an argument, a policy, and still not lose the thing that matters.

We saw this philosophy lived out recently by Colorado’s newest congressman, Rep. Jeff Hurd, when he voted against the Canadian tariffs. That was a difficult vote for a freshman Republican, but he represents a district where farmers, steel manufacturers, and other constituents are feeling the economic squeeze and uncertainty from tariff policies. The vote cost him President Trump’s endorsement, at least for a time.

Hurd was willing to risk the censure of his president and his party to serve his priorities: the economic realities of the people he represents, and his conviction that trade policy belongs to Congress, not the executive branch. Those are the things he ran on.

I don’t agree with Rep. Hurd on everything, but watching him take that vote made me proud. Psychologists call that feeling “moral elevation.” It’s the lift we experience when we witness courage or integrity. It steadies us and makes us want to rise to the occasion.  

Clear eyes, strong hearts, can’t lose.

Here’s another example of moral elevation. A group of citizens in Moab has turned the periodic “No Kings” protests into a twice-weekly community event, a friendly demonstration along the downtown highway on Mondays and Fridays. They hold signs that express their worries, their patriotism and their truths. One person brings extra signs each week in case a passer-by has an impulse to join them. They smile and wave at the cars. They get a lot of happy honks and thumbs-up. Occasionally, less happy motorists signal their displeasure. Every gesture is answered with a smile.

My sister and brother-in-law live in Moab. Bill is a retired National Park ranger. Barb is a seasonal fire lookout. The two of them have helped protect our lands and lives for half a century, and they worry about the changes they’re seeing. The weekly rally is one way they’ve chosen to help. Here’s what Bill had to say about the most recent demonstration:

“One gentleman was teaching people how to properly fold an American flag. He approached me. I have folded American flags many times and even remembered how. A real bright spot was one of Moab’s police officers dancing with a woman wearing an inflatable frog costume in a crosswalk. That’s Moab. Carla was there. She’s closing in on 90. There was a very happy and positive energy to the event.”

What a beautiful thing they’ve created. Its regularity is part of the magic, shifting the protest energy from episodic and reactive to a constant joyful expression of citizenship. They are telling the world, twice every week, what they value as Americans, why it’s important, what needs care and fixing. And they’re doing it with a smile and a wave.

Clear eyes, strong hearts, can’t lose.

We are approaching America’s 250th birthday as an independent nation, and Colorado’s 150th anniversary of statehood. It feels like an appropriate moment to ask what we’re made of.

What are your priorities? What do you stand for? What needs fixing that you might be able to help with?

Focus with clear eyes. See what’s actually happening, honestly and without flinching. Build up a strong heart. Stay open, stay courageous, stay in relationship with people who see it differently. Bring your good ideas to bear on the problems of today. Can’t lose.