Frequently, we speak highly of people who possess an “iron will”- someone who doesn’t easily yield to adversity.  Interestingly, I think that we all, or at least most of us, possess a metaphorically “iron”, or rather “steel” will.  If you’ve never studied blacksmithing, bear with me for a minute.  You see, iron (and especially steel) can possess a lot of different characteristics depending on how they are annealed, hardened, and tempered.

I’m sure that most of you have seen a movie in which some guy heats up a piece of metal until it’s bright orange and then dunks it in a big bucket of water.  When you heat metals like iron up to rocket hot, the microscopic crystals in the metal begin to melt.  This softening is called “annealing” and it is important to making the metal workable.  In blacksmithing, the annealing process is simply called “heating”, but in jewelrymaking and many other crafts, the metal is actually cooled slowly.  This keeps the metal relatively hard, but more plastic than if the crystals are broken up.

After annealing, the metalworker pounds the metal into shape until it becomes too hard to work with.  Then he (rarely she historically- not sure why) reheats the metal again.  This process is repeated until the desired shape is formed.

So, to sum up, there is a softening process, followed by a lot of pounding, followed by softening, and so on.

Once a blacksmith gets a piece of iron into the desired shape, he then “hardens” the metal.  This usually starts by getting the metal really hot and then dumping it into a bucket of water, thus “quenching” the heat out of the metal.  With steel, quenching is sufficient to harden the metal.  Quenched steel tends to be extremely hard, brittle in fact.  Quenched iron, on the other hand, doesn’t get that much harder.

If you want to make wrought iron really hard, say to make a sharp knife blade that will keep an edge, you need to “cold hammer” it.  This is a very delicate process in which the smith careful pounds the iron to compact the fibers of metal closer and closer.  Of course, just like the quenched steel, the iron can become very brittle if cold-worked too harshly.

What’s the problem with brittle?  Well, brittle things break.  It happens all the time with metal parts.  If the axle in your car is too hard, too brittle, it can easily snap if you go over a bump.  The axle needs to be not just hard, but tough.  In metalworking, the process of exchanging hardness for toughness is called “tempering”.

Tempering is all about softening the super-hard metal in a controlled fashion.  If you over temper, the metal will be too soft.  With cold working wrought iron, tempering is all about not over hardening.  With steel, tempering is about applying careful amounts of heat to remelt some of the crystals without melting them all.

Our willpower, indeed our entire character, is very similar.  We are softened up by various experiences in our lives- the heat of danger or fear, perhaps social conditioning, even by positive forces like a loving mentor or a particularly relaxing vacation.  Our characters are then battered by the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, helping us grow into the adults we are and may yet become.

If we stay too soft and are never hammered, we cannot reach our potential.  We never achieve the shape that we should have.  Of course, if we are hammered too often without enough annealing in between, we can break- doing something out of character, suffering mental illness, or even dying.

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that someone has survived the heating and hammering of their younger years (it takes about three or four decades- sorry kids) and has arrived at an adulthood that is at least close to the kind of person they want to be.  If that someone endured too much pounding without enough opportunities to relax and feel safe, they are going to be reluctant to risk situations where they could break.  The opposite is true as well- think of the person who caves easily under pressure.

Does that person lack an “iron will”?  I think not.  I think both forms of spinelessness derive from a lack of proper temper.  One person was over-hardened, the other over-softened.  The flaw lies not in the metal, but in the smith.

Blame God if you want, but I think that’s unfair.  We are each ultimately responsible for our own character.  It is we, not our Creator, who choose whether our spirits wield steadfast resolution or a rubber chicken.  We have free will.  It is our job to figure out if we are getting pounded too much or if we are letting ourselves go soft.

I’m not terribly good at this, by the way.  I have displayed equally compelling examples of tenacity and laziness throughout my life.  I am still learning to properly temper my iron will by challenging myself and then taking it easy for a bit.  I suspect that too much challenging myself as a school committee member helped encourage me to be lazy about getting reelected.  Ultimately, it’s my fault on both counts.

Had I done a better job of relaxing when I could, I could have brought more energy to bear on overcoming my fear of asking.  Instead, when tested by a tough election, I broke.  I allowed my cowardice to take control.

In the intervening year, I’ve been working on striking a better balance.  It’s not perfect, but at least now I recognize that pushing myself too hard can be as much of a problem as not pushing myself enough.  It will take time, but I’m working on forging this new wisdom into my character.