CoffeeTime: “Being Courageous is Scarey Stuff"

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You think that bold firefighters hold no fear in their bones when they rush into a red-hot cauldron of fire that was once a high-rise building? That police officers run have no fear inside as they run toward an active crime scene? That parents don’t spend some sleep-deprived nights, dreading the marching onslaught of the notorious ‘teen years?’ That the middle-aged generation laughs fearlessly and poo-poos the much-talked-about inevitable old age, loneliness, and pain?

Think again, my friend. Every one of those people that I mentioned above, if they hold even a smidgen of a brain in their heads, also own some fear and trepidation. They would be a little bit naïve and a lot stupid if they didn’t.

But they also have something else in common, more than just jittery nerves, anticipation, and downright fear. Reality stares them in the face. “I have no choice. This has to be done. Whether I chose this for myself, or it chose me. I just have to do my best while it’s happening.”

In the case of being a ‘fearless firefighter’ – the honored title they have earned through the years. Each of them knows that the job comes with the possibility of disaster and death. That is the ‘scared but courageous’ part – doing what they do, in spite of knowing what could and sometimes happens.

And police officers are extremely aware that an innocent looking situation can end up costing them their life. They know that officers get killed while doing their job, even when every professional precaution was used. That is scary stuff, and it takes real courage to do what they do, knowing what could happen by the end of their shift.

Parents of little kids? It’s a wonder that we don’t see more zombies driving around in a sleep deprived daze. The absolute knowing that ‘those years’ are just a few thousand days away is enough to keep the suppliers of antianxiety and sleeping pills enormously wealthy for hundreds of years.

The wary and realistic parents who stare down the road toward their child’s teen years probably sense the never-ending marching of time and hear a not-too-distant death knell. “Oh, God in heaven, I can remember what I was like at that stage! How am I going to survive this?! Would You please perform a miracle and make my child the opposite of me as a teenager?!”

Takes real courage to be that scared and still choose to keep breathing, I promise you.

And speaking of the never-ending march of time. You might as well put that phrase in the same sentence as “scared but courageous.” After spending any time at all around an older generation person, any observant mature man or woman will have seen and heard enough to begin realizing that their turn is coming, and begin wondering about what is ahead for them.

Running headlong or shuffling into the future - no matter what scary stuff that future may hold.

That, folks, is real courage.