The meaning of valor

What is bravery, courage, valor?

Does it mean someone who does not feel fear? Does it mean someone who is foolhardy? Does it mean a person who takes excessive risks?

Is a person who takes an apparent brave action because she is too scared to defy what is expected of her brave? Is the soldier who blindly follows the orders of a stupid general brave? Is the person martyring himself for a cause (and I mean any time people think that they are martyred – doing things for others when they don’t want to do those things) courageous?

Or perhaps it may be someone who is cautious and is ready to buck the expectations of society. Perhaps a person who is ready to be called a coward for doing what he believes is right the brave one.

Without making a political point I want to think about the Vietnam war. Who was brave?

• The person who believed in the war and volunteered and asked to be sent there?
• The person who believed in the war but got deferments or used influence to get out of the war?
• The person who was apolitical and just did not want to be killed and ran to Canada?
• The person who did not believe in the war and demonstrated against it but did his duty and went when he was drafted?
• A person like Mohammad Ali who went to jail on a matter of principle, being stripped of his world championship and losing millions and millions of dollars during the prime of his career?

There are never any easy answers to good questions and I’ll not even try. I would rather make you think about this question for yourself.

Postscript: I wrote the above five hours ago and then I had various computer issues which made me think that I had lost all that I had written. I accepted that as a possibility and thought, “I can do it better a second time.” I was lucky and the system had saved what I had written but part of valor is accepting whatever happens and knowing that no matter what you will cope.

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