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About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
 
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Everyday Canvas #854247 added July 13, 2015 at 1:38pm
Restrictions: None
The Relationship of Fear and Courage
Prompt: How do you think fear and courage are related? Does fear provide the opportunity for courage? Or is courage an entity on its own without the catalyst of fear?
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Some believe that courage is the act in spite of fear, which sounds true to me. I don’t see courage being an entity on its own or standing alone without fear, although courage may exhibit itself in different kinds of acts with the catalysts of varied kinds of fears.
For example, a fireman running into a building to save a kitten on the ledge may have the fear for the life of the kitten and the fear of how he’ll feel later on if he didn’t do anything to save it. He may have also feared for his own life, but the other fears were more overpowering for him.
Then, there are other physical acts of courage people say they undertook without thinking on the spur of the moment. I believe these kinds of acts still have a fear and courage connection, except that connection has to be running in the background of one’s mind, in the subconscious.
In addition, the acts of courage that do not involve physical action too much also occur. These can be intellectual, psychological, philosophical, and conceptual. The exercising of one’s freedom of speech falls in this area. This type of an involvement has to take the most courage, because the fear and the courage here is not instantaneous or depending on only a few minutes or a very short time.
When an artiste in any area writes, paints, gives a speech about, or makes a caricature of something, he doesn’t get off the hook easily and with speed. His work will come to haunt him and other people who follow him, and not only that but also his concepts and his life and the lives of his loved ones will be challenged and threatened by those opposed to his ideas.
Although instant physical acts of courage may bring more sudden fame, I value the intellectual kind the most, for this kind of courage has to do with Abraham Maslow’s self-actualization principles, despite the fragmentary or continuous feeling of fear related to the courageous action.
Self-actualization is mission oriented, and it leads to the emergence of the true higher self. The fears here involve unpopularity, loss of privileges, and physical action against oneself and others. Opening the self up to these kinds of fears means identifying defenses and finding the courage to stay intelligent and honest.
This evaluation of courage takes my thinking back to the concept of love. When we love someone, something, or some idea or belief deeply enough, we find the courage to claim and defend it despite our fears. This has been so, all through the history of mankind. As Lao Tzu said, sometime around 600 B.C., ““Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
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