Bravery

I was listening to a book (I listen to book-on-tape in my MP3 player) and in the story I was listening to, one of the characters who is a great warrior had felt fear on one occasion. It was a unique experience for him causing him to doubt his manhood. He has, on more than one occasion, brought up that he should leave the party because he never knows when the fear will strike again and he feels that fear is a sign of not being a man. He feels that fear is the opposite of being brave and that is something he is struggling with.

It has led me to think about bravery and what it truly is. A few years ago, when I was in school, I was taking an English class for general education credit. Most of the assignment involved a series of articles written by various authors presenting pros and cons on a specific subject and each section the subject would change. One of which that I found very interesting was about Superman and bravery. If I remember nothing else about that class, I will remember these articles because they were very profound.

The one that I remember the most stated that Superman was not brave because he knew that he could not be hurt. Bravery, in this article, was defined as standing up to a situation not knowing whether or not you would survive. Bravery was more of the battle against the fear to do what was necessary. Superman, knowing that the bullets, knives, fists, etc. would not hurt him did not fear them. He has no fear of heights because he can fly and even if he falls a great distance, he can not be hurt. A large boulder could fall on him and it really wouldn't hurt him. Therefore, according to this article, he was not brave because he did not need to fear.

At first, I did not like this article because Superman was one of those characters you looked up to. In this light, he wasn't as brave as we thought him to be. After the initial "hero-bashing" wore off, I began to think about it and it made a lot of sense.

Bravery was measured by how we deal with fear. What do we do when we are afraid? This is what defines our bravery. When things get tough and we fear that we are making the wrong choices, do we shirk from our duties or do we press on hoping things will turn out? What do we do with the fears that surround us? Do we let them rule our lives or do we take precautions and move on?

There is a lot of bad out there. There is a lot of good also but its not the good you have to worry about. Things that are even neutral can be causes for fear. Heights, outdoors, dogs, etc. are all fears that the subject of fear is not good or bad but our perception of them and what can happen to us is what feeds those fears. There are a lot of words that end in -phobia that deal explain our fears. Those that let the fears rule their lives generally do not exhibit bravery or mastery over those fears.

Most of the time fears are of general black-and-white type things; fear of heights, fear of spiders, fear of being mugged, fear of death, etc. The fears that are more common but little well known or associated with bravery deal with being a father or mother, being a role model, working at a job, or anything we face on a day-to-day basis. Think about all the decisions you make during the day and whether you worry about making the right decision.

I suffer a lot of fears. It is not that we fear that makes us weak or cowardly, it is how we deal with those fears that defines us as brave or as cowardly. It is by pressing on each and every day in spite of the fear that helps us to be brave. It is by not hiding behind our fear and our self-pity of that fear that defines us as brave.