66-the-courage-to-create.pdf

TMPhilosophersNotes More Wisdom in Less Time Brian Johnson’s “The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.” ~ Rollo May from The Courage to Create Rollo May was a 20th century existential psychologist who honored the challenges of living a full life and recognized the fact that, in the process of finding that light switch to our lives, we are often confronted with despair. The Courage to Create gives us some Big Ideas on how we can best move forward in the face of the challenges life gives us! Let’s jump right in. We’ll start by looking at the root of the word courage: THE HEART OF VIRTUE “The word courage comes from the same stem as the French word Coeur, meaning ‘heart.’ Thus just as one’s heart, by pumping blood to one’s arms, legs, and brain enables all the other physical organs to function, so courage makes possible all the psychological virtues. Without courage other values wither away into mere facsimiles of virtue.” I love that. Imagine your body without your heart. Say goodbye to your arms and legs and brain and all your other organs and, well, your life. Now, imagine your life without courage. All that love and kindness and compassion and creativity and joy and patience we live to express? Gone. Courage. It’s the “heart” of our psychological virtue system. Without it, all the values “wither away into mere facsimiles of virtue.” Powerful way to look at it, eh? Alright, so courage is from the French word for heart and we need it to pump blood to all our other virtues, but what IS courage? MOVING AHEAD IN SPITE OF DESPAIR “What is courage? This courage will not be the opposi