Fear, what a wonderfully powerful feeling. It's beautiful in it's complexity. When someone experiences fear, your body and instinct act as one, either to prepare you for the classic fight or flight.....
....or to completely immobilize you, leaving you powerless to do things that you wish you could do. I think it's safe to say that all of us have experienced fear- when asked to speak in public, or when being chased by a dog, or go into a dark room, or in a movie, or seeing a snake, spider, cockroach....
Fear is a basic natural response, one that probably has kept us humans alive for these thousands of years. It allowed our ancestors to run faster when being chased by animals to survive and subsequently pass on their genes to propagate the species. Better to run away, to hide, to live another day. Fear has been honed for centuries to become a perfect response to dangerous situations, giving one the speed, strength, or dexterity to escape that one never knew one had. The problem today is that more often than not, we experience fear in non-dangerous situations and give in to the natural response to evade. While this may aid one in SURVIVING, fear does nothing for a person's GROWTH. Unfortunately, existing is not enough- we have more than enough humans to pass on the genes for the next generation- and merely existing will bring no one any long term happiness.
I'm reading a book now that is helping supplement my ideas- I confess my expressionism is rather below par. The author writes about courage, and he asks, what is courage? The first thing one would think of is heroes running through fire, saving damsels in distress, dodging bullets, saving the world. But that's only one type of courage, one that I would argue is the most simple type, because it's a clear course of action, and there is recognition/fame at the end of it that provides motivation. But there are other types of courage that are just as important- the ones where the only spectator is you, and the choices are between the easy wrong and the hard right.
I imagine that most of us have probably been forced to choose between the right and the wrong, and further, have chosen the wrong way before because it was easier or less confrontational. Walking away and not getting involved is so much easier than standing up for your principles. It takes courage, of the moral kind, to make a stand and do what you believe is correct.
It is curious- curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare. - Mark Twain
Our education system does not really encourage the building of moral fiber. Sure, we learn Moral Education, and memorize definitions of various moral values to score in a test. But I believe that true morality can never be taught fully in a classroom. How does one explain the ambiguity of some situations; the unseen but oh so powerful pressure from external sources like your boss, your teacher, even your friends; the small voice inside you that is whispering for you to take a certain course of action even though it will make you be the only one to swim in a different direction from the general flow? Reading books will never be able to make you feel the inner battles of you vs yourself, or simulate your nervous system to produce those feelings of uneasiness, restlessness, or cold sweats one gets from making hard decisions.
Why can books never take the place of real experience? Because when we read, we are detached from the situation. Someone- the author(s)- is telling you how things are from his point of view. It doesn't need much brainpower to assimilate what he is saying, mostly using academic understanding anyway. We don't learn to think while reading, we learn to blindly accept what the author says and accept it as the gospel truth, memorizing each and every detail to regurgitate later on during exams. But of course, there hasn't been a book printed where there haven't been mistakes, because no matter what happens, people write books, and people are never perfect. To really learn, experience is the best teacher, even though she is one of the harshest. By merely reading, our 'soft skills' are rarely challenged and gradually atrophy. I would classify courage as one of the most important soft skills, because sooner or later we will be called to a moral challenge- our courage will determine whether we hold our ground or surrender. Most of the time the challenge isn't even announced. We are silently tested every single day- and we know if we pass or fail.
