Can You See Different Shades of Courage?

Posted on by Endless Weekend

If you’re asked to describe a courageous person, what comes to mind? A firefighter, dashing to save a life? Galileo Galilei’s defense of the Earth revolving around the Sun?  Roald Amundsen’s expedition to the South Pole? In each of these cases, there’s a need to face danger, so courage is present. But is this the only shade of courage? As the quote to the right ponders, is it possible to have more than one way to be courageous, or, how much courage is required to change one’s mind?

Are there different kinds of courage?

Watch the video below (regardless of its title or even original purpose, which is worthy all on its own). It shows different types of courage: the courage of the leader, in this video the first person to dance. Then there’s the courage of the first person to support the leader, the “first follower”, who’s the second person to dance. Then there’s the courage of the leader in embracing the follower and letting go of being the only one who gets attention. Then there’s the courage of the second dancer.

So what do you think, are there different types of courage? What are some unusual examples of courage you’ve come across? What do you think is the most difficult type of courage to practice?

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59 thoughts on “Can You See Different Shades of Courage?”

  2. Good question. These days, I’m reminded of what JFK and Adlai Stevenson used to say about courage: “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a time of moral crisis, choose to remain neutral.” Those who take a stand in the difficult moment they were referring to are thought to be courageous.

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      2. One must believe him, then. In my personal blog I recently used a quote that is most frequently attributed to Winston Churchill, but appears on the list of quotes-most-frequently-attributed-to-Churchill-that-he-never-said…

        One of my favorite Woody Allen (I believe) quotes is “Some drink deeply from the river of knowledge. Others only gargle.” 🙃

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  3. This is such an interesting video and subject 🙂..I think it takes courage to lead, however, it also takes courage not to follow what everyone is following in that moment..thank you for the food for thought!

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    1. What a powerful observation that is! YES! It takes enormous courage not to be swept up in a “dance” that you believe is wrong when so many are rejoicing in it and may potentially ostracize those who don’t join.

      I was thinking about that as I rewatched the video before posting that, looking at those who didn’t join the dance, and wondering if they were lazy, courageous, or caught up in their own existence and ignoring what’s around them?

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  4. Cute. Yes, no matter whose words they are, we can be relatively confident that someone will misappropriate them and others will repeat the name of the last person who used them. Still, I wish I’d said what Woody didn’t speak about showing up. Whoever it was, they or both of them were right.

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    1. There’s always improving on the previous version. A quote often attributed to Van Gogh (though at this point I hesitate to say anything more certain 🙃) is “I believe I do much better for the time being by first copying some good things than by working without that foundation.” And that’s from the man who gave us Starry Night!

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      1. My brothers were musicians, and when they played, my job was to get the audience up dancing. I was always the first one on the dance floor. Now I can no longer dance….your post brought up those good memories.

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  6. I find courage so fascinating because it really does come in so many different shapes and sizes. You have someone in the line of fire — firefighter, police officer, etc — who saves the day but the word is still appropriate for someone who stands up and stands out like the leader in your video. The word courage covers such broad territory.

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  7. This was a great video, and such a sunny start to my day. I don’t think I’ve considered the courage it take to “follow the leader” or, as others have mentioned, the courage to opt out of a popular but morally questionable movement. The most common definition of courage I’ve come across is “feeling the fear, and doing it anyways,” and that can manifest in so many different ways because we all have such different sources of fear.

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  8. I have no idea if there are shades of courage, but would suggest most courageous acts are a result of the situation and how you react to it therefore courage is subjective. Objective measurement of courage would be difficult to do. I don’t know what the scale would be. There’s be lots of variables to consider.

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    1. I like that! We often try to bucket things in black and white, but there aren’t just different shades of gray, there’s a whole spectrum of color, visible and invisible! And, yes, you remind me of that old saying that courage isn’t the lack of fear, it’s doing the right thing despite the fear! Thank you for opening up,this line of thought!

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    1. There’s courage in making that decision, too, in choosing not to join the crowd. I once read a study that showed how generation after generation of teenagers all “rebel” by conforming to the current (at the time) rebellion. It took courage not to join each one of those movements. And it always struck me as odd: the conformity of those who feel they’re rebels?

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  11. Perhaps like many things in life we lean towards recognizing the biggest, boldest, loudest, most mightiest action as being courageous. While that might be true, and like many aspects in our world, who are we to judge what is or isn’t a courageous act. Most of us are able to get up in the morning and go about our day fairly able bodied. For others the mere idea of, or capability to manage that act of rising is a genuine struggle. We as humans often like to compare or place levels of value on things like courage, forgetting that everyone is moving through life with diverse lived experiences that may or may not feel courageous to them.

    I see the point of the video falling into that frame of reference- that the 2nd and 5th and 20th person were all courageous but that they all had different reasons for their own courage. Does it matter why? Do we need to pick apart who was first or 12th and analyze their individual reasons or can we who chose to observe in that moment simply enjoy the moment? The utter freedom to express whatever it was they wanted to express. The joy that came for each person defined only by themselves in those moments.

    Yes, there are different types and levels of courage, but why do we, or should we care as a society?It’s strange for me to say this, but maybe it doesn’t or shouldn’t matter what the ‘why’ is since I can over analyze almost everything! Maybe what really matters is that each of those individuals simply ‘did’ what they felt was appropriate in that moment.

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    1. Thank you for bringing up such a good question. I think it’s important to understand the different types of X to understand X. Think of X as clouds, for example. Do we understand clouds without understanding the different types of clouds?

      But that’s not what you wisely asked. You asked why is it important for society to understand different types of courage. Fantastic question! For several reasons, I believe. The first is because I believe it’ll help us treat those different types of courage with the respect they deserve. Is a gifted teacher courageous for choosing the profession and, like you said, struggling with the day-to-day challenges and doing such important work? And yet, do we treat teachers with the same awe and respect as professionals that we see as displaying what you referred to as the bold acts of courage, like astronauts? Yes, astronauts are very courageous to go explore “the ultimate frontier” but so are teachers… And if we don’t explore and identify the different types of courage, how will we reward it?

      What do you think?

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      1. oh, i think going into space is way easier than teaching a full classroom of “little people.” but i don’t automatically assign courage to a particular job title (or how hard or easy i think it is to do a job), nor do i believe that respect is automatically given based on title or credentials.

        is courage rewarded? … should it be? and, are we talking a parade, a statue, a trophy, monetary reward? who gets to decide? and if a person acts courageously to get the prize, was the person even courageous, or merely motivated by the reward?

        but yes, many different types of courage and many different ideas of what constitutes courage. btw, i have been the first to dance on more than one occasion, but that just makes me a free spirit, and perhaps sillier than most. 🙂

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      4. Will it though…help us to treat the simplest form of courage in the same way we historically look at and treat the big acts and moments and heroic gestures? We are a world of big and bold and loud and in your face and our social organization wants to acknowledge the same because those things signify power and freedom and winning and goodness. The teacher who shows up everyday, underfunded yet still passionately leading students is often thought to just be doing their job. I am not sure that pointing out that courage exists in many forms will actually cause a sea change shift in viewpoints and thus respect and reward? I also wonder about the concept of reward actually. The people who act, or conversely choose for the better not to act- are they doing either of those looking for, expected recognition or reward? Or has our society conflated moral values and the idea of being courageous into something so grand and over the top that it MUST be recognized versus simply being the way everyone should approach their place as humans?

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    2. re: does it matter? — it matters if you’re the second mouse (early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese). sometimes, it’s smart to be second– courage can bite you in the ass.

      hey deb, with your background in the social sciences, do you think courage has more to do with social dynamics than it actually has to do with “finding your courage”?– did that make sense? maybe i should word it this way– does being courageous or going first come naturally to some based on their “tribes” expectation of them (ie: alpha males, genetically bigger and stronger to offer protection, born leaders)? … i’m probably over analyzing for you. no need to answer, just pondering while watching the chiefs game. 🙂

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      1. I would probably take the safer psycho-social answer and say there MAY be a heritable connection to leadership and courage, some strong dominant inner trait that is then brought to fruition based on societal expectations and norms. However, I mostly tend to the environment-as-influence side so there’s that interesting look way back at egalitarian social orders where males and females worked at and were seen as equals with everyone sharing roles (mostly associated with hunter-gatherer bands)…until agriculture and domestication of animals became the norm and leadership roles emerged and females stayed in place to tend crops and children while males were the appointed predators allowed to leave the community, bring back the MEAT and conquer new lands with their courage and bravery over wildlife and other tribes…all of which was then reinforced and rewarded and here we are in 2023… 🙂

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      3. Thank you, both, for a marvelously provoking conversation. If I’m allowed to squeeze in, I do think there’s value to “recognition” of some sort. Why? I’m reading an interesting book that now is delving into some of how our morality evolved. And there are certain traits, like ones that support living within a tribe, as you mentioned, that are rewarded by evolution. It even seems, the author cites several studies to that effect, that we evolved to leverage oxytocin for acts that support tribal health and bonding.

        Similarly, if we want to promote courage, don’t we need some sort of positive reward mechanism for it?

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      4. Thank you, both, for a marvelously provoking conversation. If I’m allowed to squeeze in, I do think there’s value to “recognition” of some sort. Why? I’m reading an interesting book that now is delving into some of how our morality evolved. And there are certain traits, like ones that support living within a tribe, as you mentioned, that are rewarded by evolution. It even seems, the author cites several studies to that effect, that we evolved to leverage oxytocin for acts that support tribal health and bonding.

        Similarly, if we want to promote courage, don’t we need some sort of positive reward mechanism for it?

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  13. Oh, I love this, EW! It reminds me of the quote from Mark Twain, “It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.” I think there are definitely difference kinds of courage – and we all benefit from both being and watching it. Brilliant way to set up a fascinating and rich conversation. Thank you!

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    1. What an absolutely spectacular quote and it is so fitting: PERFECTION! I love it! Thank you for making the connection and sharing it with me. I’ll treasure it and look up where Twain shared it, it’s clearly worth the read and the discussion. Thank you so much, Wynne! 🌟🌟🌟 (since one line is simply not enough for such a splendid comment!)

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      1. I have two thoughts about courage, one from children, and one from adults (me). I’m a preschool teacher, so my #1 is children. It takes courage for children to take risks, especially climbing on the playground. More importantly is supporting them in being courageous with classmates; telling them ‘no’, or how they feel, or thanking them. This is not easy for children, yet it is a life skill they will need down the road. For me, my road to courageous was slow. I was the shy one, and rarely spoke up. My courage began when I read aloud to children and saw the difference it made. I was lucky enough to hear Jim Trelease speak (he came to my classroom), and that gave me the courage to read aloud and make a difference. I was a live guest on the Kelly Clarkson show. Courage is like a blanket with love and power.

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      2. Thank you for sharing! I’m a huge believer in reading out loud, for toddlers, youngsters, young adults, adults,… and older adults. It’s a gift that’s always right, and, yes, keeps on giving. I love that you do that!

        May I ask, in your experience, do you find more, same, or less acts of courage as the children age? Do they tend to conform more?

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      3. You are welcome! In general I find less acts of courage as children age, yet there are always those who rise to a challenge. Young children are developing their sense of self, so courage is part of of trying new things. The same seems to hold true for conforming.

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      4. That is utterly fascinating, that there are more acts of courage in younger children. I wonder why that is, if it’s because there’s less awareness of potential consequences or less selfishness or something else?

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      5. No, it’s simpler than that. Young children naturally try new things. It’s their way of learning and exploring. They have no preconceived worries, so courage comes naturally.

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      7. A child is naturally egocentric till the age of (roughly) 8. When they’re taking in the world around them after they become less egocentric, that’s when the behavior begins to shift.

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    1. What a magnificent perspective! It’s like Boorstin said “In our world of big names, curiously, our true heroes tend to be anonymous. In this life of illusion and quasi-illusion, the person of solid virtues who can be admired for something more substantial than his well-knownness often proves to be the unsung hero: the teacher, the nurse, the mother, the honest cop, the hard worker at lonely, underpaid, unglamorous, unpublicized jobs.”

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