COURAGE
Virtue: Virtue is goodness, living one's life to ethical standards. Just as I will occasionally write about the seven deadly sins, I also want to write about the other side, the seven cardinal virtues. My guide to this is James Stalker's The Seven Cardinal Virtues. Stalker was a Scottish minister who wrote in 1902. His message is truly timeless: The things he says are as relevant today as in 1902.
In the sense we sometimes use it, the word courage means the ability to face difficulty or danger without fear. But I've heard real heroes say that to face danger without fear is more akin to foolhardiness, that true courage is the willingness to do what needs to be done in the face of danger, overcoming fear. The courage I'm writing about is more like the latter definition: The desire to overcome obstacles, the willingness to face fear, the acceptance of the possibility of failure in the pursuit of a goal. And as James Stalker has reminded me, the courageous pursuit of a goal assumes a worthy goal, a virtuous goal. We don't use the word courageous to describe a murderer or a thief.
I see examples of courage every day: The mother who has to work at a boring, unpleasant job to feed her children, the child who overcomes the jeers of schoolmates in an effort to learn, the volunteer who faces defeat in efforts to help the needy, the immigrant who tries to make a life for his or her family in a strange land, are all courageous. The courageous people are often anonymous, unrewarded, unheralded. The examples I cite are the more courageous because of that. The unselfish desire to help others is, in my mind, the highest form of courage.
When I think of courage and the other cardinal virtues I think of how hard it is to remain virtuous in the face of temptation, especially the temptation to give up, to accept defeat, to conclude that the goal is simply too difficult. That temptation is especially strong to my heroes, the people who seek to attain their goals without resources, without assistance, without encouragement, without the thought (or, indeed, the possibility) of reward. That they continue, for days, weeks, years, to seek their goals, to overcome difficulties, including difficulties of physical and mental pain, is real courage.
Be courageous in your own life. Select worthy goals and pursue them no matter what the difficulties. And encourage those around you to overcome fear, pain, thoughtless companions, naysayers in the pursuit of their goals. It doesn't matter whether goals are reached, what matters is the brave pursuit. To be honored as courageous is all the reward you need.
7-24-00
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