Some Thoughts on Courage

            Courage: the ability to do something in the face of fear or the ability to do something even when experiencing pain or grief (Oxford Dictionary).  Courage, then, is most definitely not the absence of fear but rather the ability to do what a person determines to be right despite the experience of fear. 

            Over the course of the last week, I have spent a lot of time considering the concept of courage.  When I stopped to really think about it, I realized that I was noticing more and more instances in which courage was needed and not being accessed.  I also realized that I noticed a lot more instances in which courage was being shown.  A room full of senators- one showed courage to deliberate on his values and make a decision that opened him up to criticism and just plain mean actions by people who are supposed to be setting an example of exemplary leadership.  A town hall televised nationally and a man answered questions about his experience with stuttering and at the same town hall, a younger man who also stutters stood up and asked a question of the candidate.  A Chinese doctor who made a valiant attempt to blow the whistle on a new virus that seemed really dangerous, was shut down and sanctioned by government but the virus was recognized and he was pardoned.  Unfortunately, he was pardoned posthumously because he succumbed to the same virus he had fought valiantly to have noticed.  Students working to learn English even though it is a hard language and it is embarrassing when they cannot find the words they need to communicate in their adoptive country, come to classes to learn English anyway.  Clients, of all ages, who are facing the traumas they have experienced and are confronting the pain to be able to grow through it.  A lot of courage. 

            How important is courage?  Extremely.  Without courage, the founders would not have risked being executed for treason to create a declaration of independence.  Without courage, rights that are most certainly inalienable components of being human would not have been extended to many classes of people and there would not be the recognition that there is more work to do in this regard.  Without courage, people would not have survived wars and famine and disasters and bullying.  Without courage, people who were told they were not intelligent based on certain standards would not have grown up to change the world in wonderous ways.  Without courage, we would be lost.

            But I also ask you to take courage one step further.  Because courage without kindness doesn’t get us all the way to where we need to be.  We live in a world in which balance is everything and the importance of which can be seen everywhere.  Without dark, we do not have light.  Without negative, we do not have positive.  Without kindness, we would be lost.  Couple courage and kindness together, and we have a winning strategy that will help us to build a world in which dreams are possible.  And not just dreams for success or meeting personal goals.  But the dreams great people have spoken about often.  Dreams about all people having the right to vote and dreams about children being able to play together regardless of the color of their skins.  Dreams become actions that change the world.  And what a wonderful world we can have when we have the courage to stand up for what’s right and to be able to do so in a kind way.