Courage

I don't know whether courage is an emotion or not. But it gives me a chance to talk about this: My uncle (my father's little brother) died yesterday at 93 years of age. According to family legend, he was a hellraiser as a young man, standing out for it among 5 brothers who were no slouches themselves. He didn't get along much with his father, my grandfather, and when the Spanish Civil War began he joined the MacKenzie-Papineau Brigade and went to fight for the Republicans. I suspect he did this more for the adventure than for political belief. He was there until the end, and saw the disaster at Barcelona when the Republicans were more interested in settling their internecine squabbles than fighting the enemy. Like a lot of others, he made his way home by circuitous means, and with a contempt for both fascists and communists. He attempted to join the Canadian army when WW2 broke out, but was rejected as "undesireable, probable communist" for his Spanish experience. Not satisf... Read more

Courage can be a great emotion if it's channeled in the right direction. But one has to be careful, because sometimes courage can be inflated to a big ego that can lead to arrogance.

I have found my self in many situations where, through my job or at the park, I encounter dogs fighting. My first instinct, which I always act on, is to rush towards those dogs to break up the fight. This is not courage. I am terrified of bugs, I have to feed my lizards crickets. This is not courage. I am afraid of commitment, years ago I was engaged to a wonderful man, who sadly was murdered. Overcoming that fear of commitment, (though not permanantly) and fighting my own ridiculousness, that was courage. Dealing with his death, to an extent, was courage. I had a friend die of cancer a couple years ago. Her cancer was terminal from the start, but right up until her death, she would say "Me and God are in negotiations." The day before she died, she said she was ready. She was couragous, in her fight to live and in her acceptance of it in the end. Another friend of mine is fighting lung cancer. She will die. She is also couragous. Real courage is something that we find in situations ... Read more

im still working on that!

It's a great feeling of dare and believe or visa versa. Something that I need more of.

If you don't think courage exists, go to a pediatric cancer ward. Look first at the parents' faces. What you see there is fear, and maybe hope. Look into the faces of the children. Not all, but there are always a few. There is no courage like a child fighting for his life, believing he can win.

Standing up and doing something that takes guts does get your heart pumping. Courage isn't being fearless; it's being scared and doing it, anyway.

Courage is such a slippery animal that comes and goes. I have had moments in my life where I have risen to the occasion and thought quite highly of myself, in terms of courage, only to succumb to fear in another situation and brought back to earth. We all have fears, no doubt. We can only hope to have the courage to face them, when we need to. A scene from the movie Posiedon Adventure best illustrates this. Shelly Winters has to swim under water and find a escape for the group. Then everybody has to follow, not really knowing if they could make it. They made the swim knowing that after a point, there would be no returning. That's courage! I can only hope that I would be able to do that. If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it, just for that scene alone.

I admire people who take the step to be courageous about any circumstance. It's almost like having blind faith as theres nothing more scary than to take a step into another direction that you can't see what awaits for you.

doesn't exist. there's false Courage, like being a soldier or whatever. but that's just stupidity in disguise