What is courage? One may find many answers to that question, but the best answer is found in example.
Columnist John R. Gunn writes that, "Often the best examples are found among those who live in narrow spheres. Here is an old fisherman, sixty-seven years of age; all his life he's been engaged in the fishing business supporting himself and family in a small cottage by the sea. His neighbors are all fishermen. They have just passed through the worst season they have ever known. Nearly everyone has lost almost everything he had. Facing poverty and ruin, they meet to discuss the situation. The old gentleman speaks, "I never saw times like these before," he says to the others, "but still we go on. We shall always go on. My boat is going out again and will keep on going out as long as there are fish in the sea.""
Here is a brave man; he has courage, he can face the wreakage of a lifetime's work and yet not fall out with life. Facing a crushing business failure, he still goes on, will always go on as long as he has breath and strength and he plays his part in the obscurity of a humble calling. Not in a public arena with admiring spectators to applaud his actions and praise his courage.
Thousands of men and women possess this same kind of courage; forgetting themselves they devote their lives to duty or a task undertaken, with no thought but to serve their family, their friends, their community, their country.
All sorts of misfortunes may happen to these men and women, except the greatest misfortune of all which is to lose one's courage. We salute these brave men and women who possess the courage that carries on.