July 18
Sunday, July 18, 2021 9:03 AM
Does anyone really triumph over fear? Does it ever really go completely away? Maybe it does. And maybe some people are successful at eliminating fear from their lives and then maybe there are special few who, in the things that they pursue, don't experience any fear at all. But it isn't courage that allows them to not experience fear. You see, courage, and many other things, are defined by the existence of their opposite. It is the presence of contradictory elements that gives each their true meaning. You cannot have good without the foil of evil. Or there is no light without dark. It is the converse of something that provides the meaning and its existence. Therefore, there is no courage without the existence of fear. Doing something, without the presence of fear potentially holding you back isn't courageous, how could it be, as you weren't scared in the first place. It doesn't detract from your doing it, but you cannot claim you were courageous in your action. But someone who is absolutely afraid of taking the action contemplated, who can barely speak with their mouth so dry, and with an upset stomach because the fear is wrenching their insides so hard, who steps forward anyway, that is true courage. Courage is "simply" feeling the fear, seeing the fear, and facing the fear, and moving forward anyway. Courage is not the absence of fear, it is experiencing it and doing it regardless, and not letting it make the decision for you.
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. E.E. Cummings
You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore. William Faulkner
Courage isn’t having the strength to go on – it is going on when you don’t have strength. Napoleon Bonaparte