It is human nature to fear the future, the unknown. Anxieties and apprehensions plague our lives. Spending half our waking hours in constant fear we feel browbeaten by the world around us.
Even so, there is an effective antidote available to meet fear hands down and to overcome its crippling effects. Simply called courage, it is, as Winston Churchill put it, “the first of human qualities, as it is the quality that guarantees all others.”
Courage is at the core of all progress. No development in the annals of history would have been possible without this human trait. Sir J M Barrie, the Scottish journalist and the children’s book writer who became world famous with his story about Peter Pan, the boy who lived in Never Land and would not grow up, is remembered for the Rectorial Address he gave to the graduating students at St Andrews University, Canada, on May 3, 1922. The theme of his address was one word, ‘Courage’.
In his immortal speech he chose to dwell on courage saying, “There is nothing else much worth speaking about to undergraduates or white-haired men and women. It is the lovely virtue – the rib of Himself that God sent down to His children…Courage is the thing; all goes if courage goes.”
Courage is the only element that would help a man face any trial, triumph over every setback and tide through all of life’s discord. The life of Beethoven is a testimony on how courage can help in tiding over the stormy weather of life.
When he was 28 years, the worst difficulty of all came to him. He began to notice a strange humming in his ears. At first he paid little attention; but it grew worse and when he consulted the doctors, he got the worst news any musician can have. He was told that he was gradually going deaf. The news devastated him. But it was not going to ruin him, thanks to his courage, with which he went on writing music.
Though he could hear what he wrote only more and more faintly, he wrote gloriously than ever. In fact, he wrote his best music, the music we remember him for, after he became completely deaf. Because of his courage, his music has given joy and inspiration to millions of people.
The common man may not be called upon to do something as courageous as this music genius. Yet, one can display courage in day-to-day living.
Courage to be honest, courage to resist temptation, courage to speak the truth, courage to live within one’s means and courage to stand up to what is right are all equally praiseworthy. After all, “one man with courage makes a majority!”