Gary's Druidry Path

The Dedicant Handbook defines Courage as, “The ability to act appropriately in the face of danger.”  Collins English dictionary defines it as, “Courage is the quality shown by someone who decides to do something difficult or dangerous, even though they may be afraid.” It also describes it as, “the attitude of facing and dealing with anything recognized as dangerous, difficult, or painful, instead of withdrawing from it; quality of being fearless or brave; valor.”

 Exercise 1: Who and What Is Courageous? USAF Technical Sergeant John Chapman was courageous when he overcame fear and risked his life to defend others in his team. In fact, he gave his life so that the others would survive in a terrible Afghanistan firefight and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. However, journalists also have courage for researching, writing, and publishing stories that sometimes attract attention of angry people. Children have courage the first time they ride their bike without training wheels or assistance. Courage is recognizing the fear and choosing to act in light of your fear.

 

Exercise 2: Examining Definitions: Courage is easy to define but difficult to recognize in all its forms. To understand courage, one must understand fear. From Collins English dictionary, fear is defined as the concern or feeling that something unpleasant may happen, has happened, or when you think you may be in danger. Fear is a normal and natural reaction to stress and danger as the body and mind prepare for immediate reaction. Everybody has fear to some extent. As I already gave in question one, courage is recognizing the fear and choosing to act in light of the fear. Action without recognition fear is not courage, but more akin to foolhardiness or ignorance.

 Exercise 3: Seeking the Mythology and History: It is easy to think of examples of courage in history. Galileo displayed courage when standing by his scientific discoveries and theories even though it brought about significant risk to his reputation and life. Rosa Parks displayed great courage in refusing to acquiesce to a single act of discrimination. The sailors who sailed into unknown waters for the first time had tremendous courage, even if they balanced the risk against the incredible rewards possible. Courage does not always require the threat of physical harm but can risk one’s reputation, livelihood, or standing. If there is not some risk then it is unlikely a person can show courage.

 Exercise 4: The Virtue and the Self: We all have times when we have courage and when we do not. Sometimes we decide that the risk is not worth a potential reward and make a wise decision to avoid the risk. This is not courage but instead risk management. I can think of many examples of risk management decision making but times when courage failed are often repressed because we do not wish to dwell on these failures. I did not volunteer for a risky deployment to a combat zone because of sensible fear, even though I knew the risks to my life were not that great. However, I did show courage in several of the trips I took into dangerous areas during a later deployment. Courage is a trait I would consider important and desired. Courage is not easy to teach but portions of the virtue can be taught. I would attest though that courage takes more than knowledge and experience but a desire to excel and function while aware of the fear within us.

 Exercise 5: Your Understanding of the Virtue: Courage certainly is a virtue and one that requires we recognize risks, rewards, fears, and motivations. There is a lot of information that we must process to take an action, especially when we must face our fear. ADF recognizes that we must all be aware of our fears and be able to show courage in cases where we are able. Courage grows from learning and understanding which is a key ADF principle. As we learn, we are better equipped to face our fears and demonstrate courage. Dumezil’s warrior class must have some amount of courage to face the fear of danger that they face in their duties, whether spiritual, physical, or mental. Courage is “acting appropriately in the face of danger” because we must all balance the risk with the need and face our fears to demonstrate it. This is completely appropriate for those seeking the Druid path in ADF!

  

 Sites referenced

 https://www.adf.org/members/training/dp/dp-manual-web/index.html

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/courage

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/fear