“'I will have no man in my boat,' said Starbuck, 'who is not afraid of a whale.' By this, he seemed to mean not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward.”
-Herman Melville, Moby Dick
Webster’s Dictionary defines courage as “the attitude of facing and dealing with anything recognized as dangerous, difficult, or painful, instead of withdrawing from it.”
Clare Booth Luce, US diplomat, dramatist, journalist, & politician, said of courage: “Courage is the ladder on which all the other virtues mount.”
The more I look at my own life, and the things I’d like to achieve, the dreams and aspirations, the more I come to realize that courage is often a missing piece for me.
Interestingly, courage is not the absence of fear, but the choice to act in spite of fear. As in the Moby Dick reference, sometimes a fearless person isn’t the smartest or most aware person, and as such not really the safest person to have on a whale hunt at sea.
The ability to act in spite of fear is a talent, a learned habit, that will go a long ways towards helping anyone achieve their goals and dreams. What will you do TODAY to exercise courage in the face of fear? How will you continue to exercise that courage day in and day out?
Life. The Art of Sneezing. Linked as ridiculous concepts from which one can find joy.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
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