Finding
Courage
“Courage
is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes
to sit down and listen.” Winston Churchill
I
dreamed this morning that I stepped into the middle of a gun fight
and shouted, “This is not courage! Courage is talking to each
other!” I woke up before finding out whether they shot me for my
trouble, but it was clear that I would write about courage today.
There is no shortage of quotes on the subject from people who know
about courage. They all boil down to one point: You will never live a
life free of fear—even if you walk around with a semi-automatic
weapon strapped to your side. Courage is not freedom from fear, it is
being able to function in spite of it. Sometimes courage does not
look like courage at all. It looks ordinary, like putting on your
pants, grabbing a cup of coffee, and heading out into your day.
We
have come to believe, and our belief is reflected in our media, that
the person with the biggest gun is the one with the most courage.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Hear the words of C. S.
Lewis, “Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of
every virtue at the testing point.” Can we stay in the conversation
in spite of frustration? Can we ask as many questions as we need to
ask in the quest for true understanding, regardless of how ignorant that makes
us feel? Can we give ground in order to have mutual agreement, rather
than insist on my-way-or-the-highway. Can we take violence off the
table as an option? That is courage.
In
my opinion, we need to adjust our notions of what it means to be
courageous. Everything that is worth doing in our lives requires courage, so we have it in us. It isn't found on the trigger of a gun. It's found in an open hand, an open mind, and an open heart.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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