Notice This Word

by Mary Reiman

It comes in many forms, in many ways, for many reasons. We see it all around us every day and yet I don't often use the word courage to describe others as much as I should. I might think...oh, wasn't that courageous...but I don't say it, I don't acknowledge it, and I definitely do not write enough notes to those I admire for their great courage. The words stunning, amazing, strong and powerful are more often used in my vocabulary. But I've thought about courage more lately, perhaps because of Covid and the Olympics, and my former colleagues starting another school year, and also because I've noticed the word in the books I read this summer. Of course I looked up the definition. The ability to do something that frightens one. I found the "true definition" of courage to be even more powerful: Mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.

In the last pages of Kristin Hannah's, The Four Winds, Elsa's daughter, Loreda, describes her mom, "...her courage would always guide me. In my dreams, I say, I love you, I tell her every day how she shaped me, how she taught me to stand up and find my woman's voice, even in this man's world."

From The Paris Library: A Novel by Janet Skeslien Charles (A personal favorite because it once again frames the importance of libraries and librarians in our lives!), "You're nothing without principles. Nowhere without ideals. No one without courage."

It is inspiring to hear dynamic phrases when reading fiction, but even more inspiring in non-fiction.

Actually, the word jumped out at me when I noticed John F. Kennedy's Profiles in Courage on my sister's bookshelf last month. I had forgotten about that title. I have always read biographies and memoirs, starting from my elementary school days reading Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys. There weren't a lot of choices in my small school library. Not sure it could really be classified as a library, but it had at least ten bookshelves! 

At that time I wasn't as offended by the fact that all of the courageous souls described in those biographies were men. Not that there aren't many courageous men, but really, only men as fine examples of courage?  I wasn't offended, but I did read and re-read the only woman written about that I could locate on those ten bookshelves: Clara Barton. I wanted, I needed more women's voices. 

Luckily  by the time I arrived at my high school library, I found Amelia Earhart, Rosa Parks, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm and more. The courage of these women taught me about strength in the face of adversity. They gave me hope.   

In The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World, Melinda Gates shares lessons she learning by listening to women around the world. Women from many cultures, many countries. "By coming together and sharing their stories, they gained a sense of belonging, and the sense of belonging gave them a feeling of self-worth, and the feeling of self-worth gave them the courage to band together and demand their rights. They were no longer outsiders; they were insiders. They had a family and a home. And slowly they began to dispel the illusion that society imposes on the disempowered: that because they are denied their rights, they have no rights; that because no one listens to them, they are not speaking truth."

Profiles in Courage could be, should be, revised to be more inclusive, but that probably won't happen. It would be a tome. It is probably better that we have now have a plethora of other books about courageous women. Courageous women are everywhere and need to have their stories told. They are our family, our friends, our colleagues, our mentors.

Courage. 

Notice this word. It describes so many.