Courage, What It Means, Full Article

I would like to republish this here on my personal blog. I have removed it from its previous spot.

When I was asked to define, rather to describe what courage looked like to me I immediately went back to images of the old, grizzled general or the admiral standing there with a pipe clenched between his teeth. Am even more impressive, courageous image is that of the old weathered NCO who always appeared right behind when the time was worst, or best, for my ass and trouble. He was the guy who had seen it all and been through it all. He had probably even been chewed up, digested, and somehow reconstituted out of some cannibal's dung heap on a remote Pacific island or some forgotten banana republic in darkest Africa. He was the guy who, so it seemed, would lead me and whoever else was there through anything and everything. Even if it was by radio from somewhere else, or from the recesses and shadows of a memory, his voice could still curdle water, if need be, and embolden a young sailor to do what was necessary.

To the academic, courage would be defined, certainly not described, but defined as the ability, the willingness to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, intimidation, hardship, death, or the threat thereof, to accomplish one's goals or lofty ideals. I imagine that it such a definition as this that lead the “occupods” of not too many years ago to make their name. I also suppose that now they sit around and congratulate themselves for their courage and fortitude in “sticking it to the man,” in fighting the establishment, even though not a single thing has changed in light of their movement, I have no doubt that they see themselves as courageous.

Courage is, after all, standing up for what one believes in. It is fortitude, no matter how one wishes to define it, or demean another person for behaving. The person who acts according to their beliefs, in defense of their beliefs, or by necessity of their beliefs can be said to be courageous. Such as some of the ancient philosophers had done, ancient philosophers like Socrates, and some not so ancient that would include Thomas Aquinas and Soren Kierkegaard.

In ancient Greece, the word Arete (air’ e-tee) meant, in its basic sense, anything of excellence and of high moral virtue. It is not gender typed, but was intended to refer more to mankind than to gods. One of Arete showed the highest excellence and effectiveness. This was brought forward in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in directly showing their strength and courage.

It's easy to see that courage was one of the four Cardinal virtues in Grecian society that all persons were instructed to uphold along with prudence, justice, and temperance. For them, courage was a lack is cowardice where an overabundance is recklessness, as discussed in Aristotle's Nicomanchean Ethics. Socrates upheld this even to carrying out his own death sentence.

Throughout the growth and development of Europe and England, from the Dark Ages to to Middle Ages, on to the Medieval and, I would argue up through the creation of a modern England and Europe, courage has been one of the primary pillars of these cultures, the West. In the Medieval ages, in particular, Thomas Aquinas wrote of courage, saying that

Fortitude without justice is an occasion of injustice; since the stronger a man is the more ready is he to oppress the weaker

Fortitude, courage are much the same thing. That being the guts to see it through, to do all that is necessary to accomplish the mission, to reach the end game.

Not just in the West, but also in the far East there have been long histories of codes that require courage. Courage was listed as one of the seven virtues that the Japanese Bushido, the Warrior Class, lived by. These virtues were so steadfast that violation of one required a swift and sure retribution. The offending person had to pay with his own blood. Quite a hard line to take on courage, even in death at one's own hand there could be no cowardice. There had to be another Bushi present so that, if the Bushi who was making amends appeared to be about to make a sound, the second Bushi could remove his head so as to save him from a dishonorable death. What are the other virtues on that list for the Bushi? That list has morality, courage, benevolence, respect, honesty, honor, and loyalty. Take note that courage is second on the list and not by coincidence I think.

I do believe that courage is being afraid to do something and doing it anyway. That does not, though, include jumping off of the high dive or asking “that” gal out. Yes, those are real fears, the height, the possible rejection. I'm talking about those moments of absolute terror and chaos such as when a vehicle has just been blown up, is spinning on its roof, rocks and pieces of metal are falling, people are running around screaming and bleeding, and you have to make the decision to move and which direction to move in. How far is safe enough is another decision that is made while you and your team are hauling ass while someone, maybe more than one or two, are trying to remove your vital signs. Yes, that takes courage, particularly if you have to go back and grab a buddy to help get them out of the kill zone for whatever reason.

All you know at that point is that your head is pounding, your team is all there, you're yelling into a radio transceiver to be heard over gunfire and you have no unearthly idea what the the guy on the other end is saying because your ears are ringing so loud that even the guns next to you are barely audible.

But, I don't live in that world now. What do all these connotations and denotations about courage mean to me? How do I define courage now? What is a courageous act at this point in my life now that I am far from the sandbox, no longer in a hot zone? How do these historical and theological definitions and laws regarding courage effect to me today?

They all do. Every definition, every connotation, every way, every person that I have met who can be seen as an embodiment of courage has impacted me to some degree. Just as every act of cowardice I have witnessed has stirred and angered me to the point it has, be it just enough to make my face heat up or to make me take action in the face it, every bit of courageousness I have learned about has changed me in some way.

At the end of the day, with my family and my life, since I have to say how what courage is to me, I follow the lesser known Greek thought on courage. Above I mentioned the more commonly known Greek interpretation of courageousness. This one, the one I tend towards and, I suppose that I always have, involves the concept of endurance. I have to be able to go all the way, I have to see the race to the end. I have started, after all, and I must finish it and in good form. All this requires endurance.

Writers of legend and lore like Homer from the age of lyric writing wrote of great endurance in his heroes. Endurance and a driving will to resist obstacles that were thrown into his path at every turn. Surely, some days feel like that, not just for me, I'm sure. This will to continue is not just for the outward enemies that Homer wrote about or that veterans of all wars had fought.

This will, this endurance is aimed sure at inward passions and misfortune in general. These intangible enemies van be just as deadly and destructive as any met on a beachhead or mountainside in any other country. The courage, the heart to keep going forward at home and with my family and, especially, inside myself is the hardest courage to find on most days.

This courage, as hard as it is to find, is vital. This is the means by which a man, this man and the next man can preserve their inward identity. This is grit in its truest sense, not a social construct, not even the special virtue of a warrior who would put his life down for the honor of it. No, this is an “ironness of heart” (Oddyssey XX9-30), my central being.

Courage is far more than a state of mind or state of being it is an emotion and comes from the heart. In this way, as an emotion, courage drives us to greater achievements than any mindset alone ever could. It was no mindset by which Shakespeare wrote any sonnet. It was by no mindset that a squad member or platoon member ever ran back into a hail of gunfire and explosions to grab someone. No, these were done from the heart, out of love. Courage, coming from love, is what gives the true warrior his heart. Love is what makes a mother such a formidable force.

Through connecting with my heart to my family again and to myself, finding the value in me, you finding the value in your person, the love will be there to build the courage to face and overcome the obstacles each of us will face.

This is the key to the heart of the man who cannot just survive, but thrive having been thrust naked and alone into a hostile world. This courage is not the gist of a social station or social conscience, this is the inner being that I am coming to grips with that will take me through my Post Traumatic Growth.