* THE SILENT COURAGEOUS

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

From a speech given in Paris at the Sorbonne in 1910 by Theodore Roosevelt

To go against the dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can perform.

From; Theodore H. White

Are you courageous? Do you have it in you to face any challenge? To be put in any situation and have the courage to face it. What is courage? Is it internal? Is it external? Where does it come from? Is courage a notion measured by previous acts, by previous doings? Is courage something of a tool by which we measure the value of others? Is it measured by the value man puts on a specific commodity like, life, freedom, family, Country? What defines courage? Is courage the simple act of facing an absolute enemy, an absolute challenge and overcome it? Or is courage simply doing whatever it takes on a daily basis? Regular acts and moments which go un-noticed. Is that not the greatest courage of all? Are courage and heroism the same thing? Wow that's a ton of questions!

Interesting questions. All of us know courageous people, all of us have them in our circle of family and friends. Some are outwardly courageous, some have been recognized for their acts of courage or heroism. But many of our friends and family are courageous and many of us never see it. These people i believe are the the ones we never come to understand. (I'll talk about them later on as the ''silent courageous'') We never come to appreciate what they face. I think courage or the acts of courage are best defined by those not seen by the masses. Those small acts which make someone more then just one of us. They are perhaps moments defined and described in ways so profound that the average non courageous person cannot begin to understand;

When I get home people 'll ask me, "Hey Hoot, why do ya do it man? Why? Just some war junkie?" Ya know what I'll say? I won't say a goddamn word. Why? They won't understand. They won't understand why we do it. They won't understand that it's about the men next to you, and that's it. That's all it is.

Sfc. Norm 'Hoot' Hooten, Black Hawk Down (2001)

When we think of courage we think of it terms of facing measurable adversity. In facing down big enemies. Recall the one man vs. the tank in Tiananmen square, recall the soldier face to face in the Oka crisis, the man who jumps into a raging river to save a toddler he doesn't know. Think about police and fire fighters running up stairs in collapsing world trade centres. All of these moments are defined as courageous acts by brave men and women.They are often captured by the global media and beamed into living rooms everywhere. These courageous acts can be defined in two categories.

1. Courageous Acts by those expected to act
2. Courageous Acts by unknowns with no definitive reason for acting

I have always been fascinated by the number 2's. You see most of us expect that the number 1's are not to do anything less then act courageously. We believe and rightly so in most cases that those individuals of the number 1 category are proscribed to acts of courage, bravery and heroism. For 3 years i served on a volunteer fire department and all of the men (there were no women in the dept at the time)i served with were genuinely predisposed to acts of courage. There wasn't one of them that wouldn't do whatever it took in any situation. You see however that these brave men were already serving in the department because they had a desire to act out in this manner. So i just always expected them to act courageously. On the other hand i have always been impressed with the number 2's. The number 2's raise our hope in mankind every time we are witness to one of their acts. They make us believe that indeed we can face down adversity and enemies so much larger then us. That we can stand in belief of something regardless of the potential consequences. These people are not however those for which i have the greatest admiration. I hold that for those that act courageously in ways we never even see or recognize. They are in essence the ''silent courageous''.

Who are these ''silent courageous''you ask? Well to me they are;

* The mother of 4 who does her best to juggle every day with her job, her children, her house, her finances.
* The mother of 1 who has no help from anyone.
* The woman who regardless of how hard life has been gets up everyday and smiles and pushes on and is positive in the face of insurmountable adversity.
*The woman who is falling asleep at every opportunity because she is exhausted from driving her children from one activity to another with no help.
* The child who struggles each day in a children's hospital somewhere worrying more about the health and the impact of their illness on their family.
* The man who stays committed to his children regardless of what the system throws at him to prevent him from doing the only thing he wants to do ''be a good Dad''.
* The guy who works 18 hours a day at 2 or 3 jobs to bring home a mere $8.50 an hour so that his family can have a decent life
* The doctors in far off lands getting paid nothing to try and make a difference when the whole world is looking in another direction.
* The kid running, or skating, or rowing or swimming long after the lights go out because he or she believes they can be better.
* The person in a wheel chair who gets the looks and the door slammed in their face but continues on with resolve and commitment.
* The men and women who at this very moment are sliding along on their bellies in some far off land where there are no cameras, no media and are doing what needs to be done so that we can have, ''what we have''.

These are just a few of the ''silent courageous''. There are so many more. Think about those you know or those you know about who would deserve to be on the list. More importantly though it is YOU who most importantly needs to recognize your courage; because something your facing, something your dealing with, the day to day grind qualifies you for ''silent courageousness'' and while most will never know, no one will see you on TV or in the newspaper. Unlikely anyone will come and congratulate you but there are those who know. And there are those who want you to know that you are what keeps everyone else going. So when your worn down by it all know more then ever that your courage is indeed greater then you. It is greater then us all. Never give up! Never relent!