Courage

I've been listening to a lot of podcasts recently.  One that had Dakota Meyers on it was incredibly hard to listen to.  If you haven't read up on what happened that day, then I would recommend doing that.  His actions were heroic, and the failure of leadership of the people who were commanding the operation was sickening.  He saved a lot of lives that day, and according to him it was the biggest failure of his life.  His team died.  He still hasn't forgiven himself for it.

The macho side of me, at least when I was younger, would have defined this as true courage.  Now, I am coming to realize that there are a lot of different kinds of courage.

Just this week I saw a woman on 60 minutes who is dying of cancer.  She is a successful attorney, a mother, a wife, an immigrant, and pretty damned courageous if you ask me.  Five years ago she was diagnosed with colon cancer, which has around a 90 percent mortality rate in the first five years.  She beat that, but she won't beat cancer.  It has spread and is terminal now.  This woman has 2 young children, and she hasn't held anything back when it comes to her own mortality.  Can you imaging telling your kids that you are dying?  I can't.  How the hell could I tell my seven and twelve year olds that I won't be around for all of those great moments in their lives.  What could I say to them?  What wisdom could I pass on in that short amount of time?  That woman has done one of the hardest things I can imagine, and she did it with grace. 

I have some friends from the past who have had addiction issues.  I still see them, and they are in treatment.  I know they are in a program, and they are trying to get better.  That takes courage.  It takes courage to leave behind all of those friends who they used to use with.  It takes courage to completely change your life and start over.  And it takes a lot of courage to face people you know and admit where you are and what you have done.  I know quite a few people like this and have a huge amount of respect for them. 

Finally, and this one might be a bit touchy, I think all of those kids that walked out of school today have courage.  You can say what you want about it, but at the end of the day it was massive validation of democracy and what our founding fathers thought was important.  YES, I saw all of the comments about this.  It's a political stunt, it's just for show, someone put them up to it!!!!  So what?  It takes courage to stand up for what you believe, even if others don't share the same viewpoint of values.  Will what they believe change over time?  Absolutely, and it should.  But we should be glad that they are willing to stand up and say what they think.  In a few years they will be voting, or serving in our military, or getting a higher education, or entering the workforce.  We should be glad that those kids are getting the opportunity to do this, because our future will depend on them have the courage to stand and do what they think is right. 

There has been a few times in my life when courage was necessary.  I can't say that every time that happened that I rose to the occasion, which haunts me to this day.  What I can tell you is that I am still learning about life, and happiness, and courage.  And I hope that never stops.