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What is the measure of a man’s courage? Is it measured by jumping on an enemy grenade to save his friends? Is it boldly braving enemy fire to pull one of his comrades from the brutal bloodbath of an enemy ambush? Both of those are great examples, but they miss a critical element…Fear. Fear can take many forms, both rational and irrational. //
Regardless of duration, there can be no courage without fear. The two go hand in hand. I picked up the following off a website devoted to sufferers of chronic pain regarding courage and fear:
Two brothers born of the same cloth. Different in many ways, yet the bond between them growing up was forged forever. Fear has no direction and cannot see very well. He moves too fast and often lives in the future and in the past. Courage cannot be seen unless his brother Fear is with him. Courage is slower moving and needs great power to emit light.
Here are a couple, other quotes about fear and physical courage:
“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” – Nelson Mandela
“Being terrified but going ahead and doing what must be done—that’s courage. The one who feels no fear is a fool, and the one who lets fear rule him is a coward.” – Piers Anthony
“A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
There is another aspect beyond physical courage and fear of death or dismemberment. There is the fear of being on the wrong side in politics…the fear of being called a racist for espousing unpopular, political views. In this case, courage is defined as standing your ground, even if unpopular…when it’s controversial to do so. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said:
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Mark Twain remarked:
“In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man, and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot.”
Which brings me to the subject of today’s offering: Rush Limbaugh, talk radio host and conservative icon. Limbaugh was an unafraid conservative when it really wasn’t cool to be one.