PRAISE OF COURAGE

And here it is, finally, I had the courage to tackle this subject.
There are many others, but I like this one because of what it can represent.
What does the dictionary tell us?
Firmness of soul allowing to support or to face bravely the danger, the suffering.

So here we are, enlightened. If there is courage, it is because there is danger and/or suffering. We must also be brave. One must fight with courage. There is neither cowardice nor spineless ness. We say to take courage with both hands. To know to concentrate its energy, its will to impose itself.

Don't we recognize the word heart in courage?
While rereading the word suffering above, I remembered a word of Victor Frankl: 'But there is no reason to be ashamed of tears, because tears testify that a man has had the great courage, the courage to suffer.

I will begin with a famous word from Georges Clemenceau:
« One must know what one wants ». When you know it, you must have the courage to say it. When one says it, one must have the courage to do it. "

And here is none other than Winston Churchill to confirm what Clemenceau said: ''Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak out. Courage is also what it takes to sit and listen. And God knows if this individual respected what he said.

Courage is therefore associated with action. For without action nothing happens. But we all know that we often lack this dear courage. We spend our lives hesitating before acting. Why do we hesitate? Is it the heart or the reason that prevents us from taking action? Perhaps it is that same heart and reason that should give us courage. I believe it is our duty to go for it.

Wasn't it François Mitterand who said that courage consists in dominating one's fear and not in not being afraid. Let's dominate our fear, because it only serves to harm us.

I remember reading some Persian wisdom that said that one should not think that courage lies in boldness and power. The greatest courage is the courage that is stronger than rage. Indeed, boldness and power are two other characters far more worthy than rage. But the fact remains that courage has its own value . Sometimes, it is better to trust courage than luck.

And if we take a closer look at the situation in which the world finds itself, we have to ask ourselves who will have the courage to demand that peace comes among us. Who will have this courageous attitude and make our lives stop being uncertain.

We need only one person (I say this and think of Gandhi) who will have the courage to face the difficult situations that our world is experiencing. And I will even take the risk if this person becomes bad. Because that person with his or her courage, dared to take risks.

These days, wearing a yarmulke in France is a sign of courage.
However, if we think about the consequences, we can ask ourselves if this courage would have been worth it. Is courage not the price that life demands of us in order to obtain peace?

It was Mark Twain who taught us that courage is the resistance to fear, that it is the mastery of fear. Arthur Koestler reminds us that courage is the fact that our actions must never be influenced by fear.
I'll conclude with a little word from Anais Nin. She says that life shortens and grows in proportion to our courage.

I was reading part of Maimonides' TREATY OF THE EIGHT CHAPTERS and discovered his definition of the word courage.
For Maimonides, courage appears as a middle way between cowardice and recklessness. The individual whose attitude leans towards one or the other of these two extremes must, in order to correct himself, tend towards the opposite extreme, to end up with the desired virtue. A spiritual balancing act, in short (Toledano's translation)

At that same moment, I thought of the situation in Ukraine, where the population is facing a Russian invasion.
I believe that the world has never seen such courage as that which all Ukrainians, starting with their president, show on a daily basis. These small people are facing an enemy ten times stronger in all areas.
At the risk of their own lives, every Ukrainian is arming themselves as best they can to protect their families and their meager assets.

It is said that after twenty days, more than two million refugees have left the country, temporarily settling in Poland and other neighboring countries. It is also said that there are already more than 3,000 dead, including soldiers and civilians. The unfortunate part of all this is that the world, supposedly civilized, is doing nothing.

It seems that this people understands that the future is something that can be overcome. Besides, we do not suffer the future, we make it. It is the enemy who puts us against the wall and asks us to fight him. One would think that the condition of freedom is courage. There is no question of resting, to be free, we must act.

We must give credit to this people who respect the motto of the Enlightenment:
 "SAPERE AUDE"; Have the courage to use your own understanding.
It seems to me that there is nothing more powerful than courage and this Ukrainian people prove it. This people also know that the greatest failure is not having the courage to dare.

I am sure that the world, seeing the attitude that this people brings to life, will understand and think twice before judging their neighbor. Because life is not determined by what it brings us but by the attitude we have towards it. Here it is courage, elsewhere it is pity.