Sonstiges
What Is Courage?

What is courage?

What is courage? Is it the ability not to feel any fear at all or is it more the ability to oversome ones own fear and turn it into action? Who would be braver? The one that is ready to jump from a cliff, 30 metres high into the water, not knowing what is to come, without even thinking about it, or is it the guy that can't fall asleep from nightmares hunting him for several days before deciding to jump? In order to follow the thought, we first have to have a look at what society feels towards this central problem. Well, on the one hand we have to imagine a young man, let's say 19 years old. His whole life he has been a

passionate musician. Through some lucks coincidences he was received the possibility to play in front of an audience of 50 000 people, all excited to hear the newcomer for the first time and not ready to get diappointed. He happily accepts the offer to play and enters the stage without any doubts. His mind is not aware of what is the worst-case-scenario, just because he doesn't let the bad thoughts slip through. He's brave, isn't he? Most people would agree on this. Still, on the other hand there is that girl, 19 years old, been working on her music since she had gotten her first guitar at the age of seven. She has been invited to the same event as our young man. Having reflected the pros and cons, she decides to take the chance.

But then it happens: ten minutes before the big show starts, she bursts into tears. Why? Because she is scared! What if they don't like, what she does? What if they throw tomatoes at her? All she want to do is leave and run aways, hide, far from everything going on out there. Still, after minutes of crying and fear she is able to oversome her worries and enters the stage- shaking and still slightly pale. What do the crew members backstage thing about her? What do they think about him? Who is the brave one? I really doubt they would call the boy a coward and the girl a hero. To be fair, not everyone would say she is a coward, but especially in a world where it besomes more and more important to be successful and prove your social status,

open fear is not tolerated. Brave is, who shuts up and does whatever is wanted from him. If the society wants you to jump from the 30 metres cliff, you are expected to do so. That's it. Another point I already included is the question, if boys are braver than girls. If we say that courage means acting without thinking, this might really be the case. Of course this does not mean that boys or men are more stupid, they just tend to shut down their minds if it comes to difficult situations that require courage. Is that a bad thing? Not at all!. Isn't that the smarter move? Even from childhood on it is possible to see that boys are the gender that likes to explore things and take first steps. Of course we have to see

that this again is not the case for everyone. There are girls braver than every boy. So does courage come from the way we were raised? Probably. Children who were raised to feel good about whatever they are doing, will most likely be more comfortable taking big steps and overcome their fear. Having thought about that, there is one more thing we have to think about: Is courage always a good thing? When does it end in madness? Sure it is great to be able to do anything without the feeling of any kind of fear or to have the ability to ignore what you feel and just do it, but where should we stop risking? When it becomes dangerous? Well, why? Some kind of danger, if the result is rejection from society or strong injuries is

good for us. No pain, no gain. There is a lot of truth behind this. No one will feel bad about some pain, if he therefor reches his life goal. Happiness is stronger than pain. Anyway, there sure has to be a point where the risk is too high. How can there be any good about people risking their lifes for some fun? People, jumping from cliffs, not sure how deep the water is, if there are any stones, just for some adrenaline? I don't know. Do you? They probably do. So why is it bad? Does courage not end where the affected one himself feels like it? No! What about his friends, family and the ones he risks to leave behind? Although it is his life, it is not his life. He is conntected to others in so many ways. Conclusion: There is no conclusion. There is

no way to tell courage apart from madness. There is no way to find out what courage is or who has most. Well, there is: Everyone has to find out for himself. For themselves and others.