Have you ever seen a young bird fly?
Courage is the path that a young bird takes to reach the edge of a tree, before beginning the first of many flights that it will undertake in its lifetime. It is the very quintessence of the bird’s first flight and forms the basis of all others that are to follow. I say this because young birds seldom fly successfully on their first try. Thus, this bird knows that it might fail and plunge down to the ground. But it still tries.
That is courage. It is not the absenteeism of fear but the willingness to try despite it. Courage allows the bird to engage in a new experience- one which could lead to food, or to possible abrasions. In the beginning, the latter may occur but a transition to the former soon unfolds.And that it the beauty of courage! If one musters enough of it and starts their journey on the said path, the finality of failure does not haunt them. It is quickly cleared and tossed away from the path, like fallen leaves in the month of October.
The said path culminates at the end of a breathtaking spot in front of the tree of new experiences and individuals who are able to travel this far, are able to see all of what the tree has to proffer. Continuing this discovery, they are also able to plant new seeds which would grow to be the trees of new knowledge. This entire journey is unique to each and every individual and no two journeys are the same. Nevertheless, venturing out on trips of these kind is crucial for experiencing the unknown and expanding individual horizons.
However, courage is not only essential as a path towards experiencing the unknown, but also for the progression of society as a whole. To quote Rabindranath Tagore, “those in this world who have the courage to try and solve in their own lives- new problems of life, are the ones who raise society to greatness!”. If the value of courage ceased to exist someday, Society would soon be considered stagnant .
If no individual chooses to take the said path, the tree of new experiences will whither and die, and the seeds of new knowledge will never be planted. More pragmatically, this circumstance would be akin to our bird starving to death due to not being able to find the path that leads it to the edge of the tree and finally towards food. As a society, we must harbour and hone this feeling within each one of us to allow for new discoveries for the greater good of humanity and for our own survival. Courage is a wonderful value and we must never let it escape us.