“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” — His Excellency Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela
The closure of businesses, and civil and criminal courts; the free fall of global financial markets; massive unemployment; cancellation of sporting events, music concerts, theater productions, and the 2019–2020 academic year for students enrolled in colleges and universities and in Grades K-12 in public and private schools; virtual classrooms and workplaces; lockdown of correctional facilities where incarcerated souls spend 23 hours of each day in their cells and are only given 40–45 minutes each day to shower, make calls to family members and loved ones, and send and review e-mails; and alarmingly rising mortality rates brought on by Coronavirus 2019 is moving the 7.8 billion souls with whom we share Planet Earth to summon up courage to navigate a strange new world. As the late lawyer, philanthropist, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, and former President of South Africa His Excellency Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela surmised in the above quote, courage is about acknowledging fear and conquering and triumphing over it.
So, what is courage — what does it look like . . . sound like?
Courage is seventeen year old Swedish environmentalist Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg of Sweden speaking truth to power by staging a protest in August 2018 in front of the Swedish Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) holding a sign with the following message: “Skolstrejk fǒr klimatet” (“School Strike for Climate”) which morphed into a global climate strike on 15 March 2019 in 125 countries with at least 1,000,000 participants and on 24 May 2019 in 150 nations at the same time that the 2019 European Parliament Election was being conducted. On 23 September 2019, Ms. Thunberg who is autistic, took her fight for Global Climate Change to the United States where she spoke at the United Nations Climate Summit convened in New York City.
For the estimated 59,000,000 healthcare workers throughout our global village along with first responders, health care professionals and providers, postal employees, public transportation workers, policemen, firemen, pharmacists, grocery store clerks, and so many other souls deemed to be essential, despite the risk of becoming infected with Coronavirus 2019, dutifully showing up for work every day is an act of courage.
On 4 April 1967, at the Riverside Church in Upper Manhattan in New York City, following his heart and conscience, the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and American Civil Rights Leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. denounced the United States’ military involvement in Vietnam by delivering a historic speech — “Beyond Vietnam”. Fully aware that he would find few friends; endure widespread condemnation at the hands of, among others, the late President Lyndon Baines Johnson, members of the United States Congress, and the media; and that many American Civil Rights allies would turn their backs on him, Dr. King exemplified courage when he publicly announced his opposition to the Vietnam War.. The speech preceded Dr. King’s participation in an anti-war march in February 1967 where he joined, among others, four anti-war United States Senators — including the late United States Senator The Honorable Mark Hatfield of Oregon –a Republican. One month later, in March 1967, Dr. King participated in an anti-war march in Chicago. Why? Dr. King remarked to his friend and close advisor the late Stanley David Levison, a New York attorney and businessman: “I can no longer be cautious about this matter. I feel so deep in my heart that we are so wrong in this country and the time has come for a real prophecy and I’m willing to go that road.”
Letting go of the things and people in our lives that do not serve us well; stepping out on faith; allowing ourselves to be vulnerable and to love unconditionally without expecting anything in return; righting the wrongs we have committed by atoning and asking for forgiveness from others as well as ourselves; and following our heart and conscience while being fully aware of the hefty price tag that is attached to taking the road less traveled — ;are acts of courage.
