“Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”
-C. S. Lewis
It’s a terrifying summer night in the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Hundreds of sirens are blaring, lights flashing endlessly abroad in the previously placid streets and avenues of the urban metropolis of the great city. The duplexes on the intersection of 3rd and 7th street are engulfed in raging flames, consumed by the smoke and the screams. The firemen arrive at the scene in record time, and although saving the building was beyond possibility, lives were immediately the priority and always have been. Families are saved by the dozens, but these victims are burned severely, the flesh does not remain. Their bodies have been stripped of their protective layers and need to be attended to immediately. The wounds seem unrepairable, their bodies have been seared by the flames, but the firemen and paramedics do not panic. They have been trained for this. Every hand is needed, every bandage, every oxygen tank, for the firemen take them off their own backs. There is a scream, a scream of a young child, the high, shrill squeal of a young boy trapped in a labyrinth of fire and smoke. The firemen do not hear, and if they can, there is nothing to be done. The roof is collapsing on its foundation, the flames are roaring, daring anyone, anything to come and challenge its force.
The civilians are horrified. They are but hopelessly lost, beginning to accept the boy’s fate.
But not him. No, he will not stand for the end of a life that hasn’t even began. He bolts into that building. He runs through the flames. He dodges the falling timber. He pulls the child from the closet and rushes down what’s left of the stairs, and he gets out, he gets out just in time. His arm is dislocated, his legs are horrifically burned, his eyes are bloodshot, his clothes are in shreds.
But the boy. The boy is fine. The boy only has ashes on his clothes, he coughs a bit, and he has bed head. The man did it for the boy, he saved his life. He is a hero. He is brave.
He is courage.
My friend, do not be undermined by a great tale of a man who risked it all, putting his own life aside for another’s.
For you are courage.
You can be courageous, without running to a burning building, without fending off men attacking a bystander, without carrying your fellow soldier into the safety of a trench, without being physically phenomenal, without being the bravest of the bunch. You can be courage.
“…but the form of every virtue at the testing point.”
Courage is not only for the soldiers, for the warriors, for those men of the great wars. Courage is for the man who will stand, the man who will stand against the violation of humanity.
Kindness. Patience. Compassion. Humility. Diligence. Purity. Love. Endurance. Self-sacrifice. Forgiveness.
When your boss presses you to finish that report, to have it on his desk the first thing in the morning, when all your ability to endure fades into the abyss of failure your life seems to always be drowning in, do you have the courage to endure, to keep going? When your first grade daughter cannot and will not listen to any attempt you have made to satisfy her hunger for attention, when you are exhausted from your day at work, when your acid reflux flares up, when you just want to let all hell break loose and scream at the child and send her off to bed, do you have the courage to have the patience to show your offspring the love she needs from you, the only man that will never break her heart? When you have swore at your parents, cursed them to the depths, have abandoned their company, wisdom, and efforts to keep you around, do you have the courage to be humble enough to say you were wrong, to tell them that you are sorry? When your distant neighbor’s son has recently been diagnosed of Leukemia, do you have the courage to be compassionate towards a child you have never spoken to, a child who needs every flower, needs every Hallmark card, to feel as if he can win his battle? When your best friend sleeps with your girlfriend, when he violates every boundary you could have possibly had, do you have the courage to forgive the unforgivable, do you have it in your heart to put it behind you permanently and tell him that he is forgiven? When your wife wants to have a weekend at your in-laws’ mountain cabin, when you are tired after a week full of work and responsibility, when you just want a moment to yourself, do you have the courage to sacrifice your time for the woman you love most, for the most loyal and supportive woman you could have ever asked for? Do you have the courage to love someone, who disgusts you to the most atomic fibers of your being, the courage to put your differences aside and show them unconditional kindness?
Do you?
Are you courage?
Yes, yes you are courage, my friend. You are human. Have the courage to embrace your humanity.
Have the courage to be human.
At every virtue’s testing point, my friend, be courage.
to those who are listening.
-Gideon Reyes
gideonreyesforever 