BY Joan Whetzel
They say that courage is feeling the fear, pain, danger, uncertainty and doing it anyway. It implies a certain amount of choice. You choose to do what's right, especially where the lives of others are concerned. Moral courage adds that ability to do what you think is right, even when you are going against popular opinion.
Courage, According to the Dictionary
The dictionaries define courage as bravery, or "having the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty without fear." It allows people to act with the courage of their convictions or to act in accordance with their beliefs, and to have the strength to venture out and to persevere, despite the difficulties.
Synonyms for Courage
Synonyms for courage: fearlessness, dauntlessness, intrepidity, pluck, bravery, valor, daring, gallantry, guts, gutsiness, heroism, intestinal fortitude, intrepidness, moxie, nerve, prowess, and virtue.
What Is Courage?
Whenever I think of courage, I think of it more in terms of bravery, valor, fearlessness, gallantry, gutsiness, and heroism. I have gone through my husband's stroke and death and am now facing having to put my life back together, which is made more difficult by the fact that we are left with a pile of financial $@*+. I do not consider myself courageous. I consider myself lucky that I have family to help me pick up some of those pieces and support me through the rough spots. Most of the decisions I have had to make in the last 2 weeks and those that I have to make now are not courageous, they are necessities. I have been facing fear, pain (emotional), uncertainty, true enough. And, yes, I'm making the hard choices anyway. But I'm not doing them because I'm courageous. I'm doing things because I have no other choice.
The fear is still there, overwhelmingly so. After all, I'm not acting with the physical courage required of a daredevil, superhero, or soldier. I am not acting from a place of selflessness, risking my own life to rescue others. I feel like I am only acting out of a sense of self-preservation. In fact I feel like running as far and as fast as I can, or looking for someplace to hide until it all goes away.
Maybe I'll look back - a few years down the road - and see the courage, but I'm not feeling it right now. I find myself wondering if the heroes throughout history knew they were being courageous at the time, or if they didn't see their courage until after the dust had settled.
