Our Three "C's" (Part I)

Rallying cries are an integral part of every culture. "For Queen and Country!" our British cousins are fond of yelling out in a tight spot. "Remember the Alamo!" carried the Texicans to victory in the Battle of San Jacinto. "Citiua, altius, fortius!" (Faster, Higher, Stronger) is the slogan of the Modern Olympics. The slogan/rallying cry of our cross country team has been the "Three C's" for several years...or "Courage, Commitment, Character."

For today's post, I wanted to focus on courage. The standard definition of "courage" is the quality of being brave when you are in danger, in pain,or in a difficult situation. For our purposes, "bravery" and "courage" are interchangeable, but I like the alliterative nature of "courage." "Two C's and a B" doesn't have the same ring. I have always liked Nelson Mandela's definition of courage: "I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." A friend of mine who served in the Royal Navy and fought in the Falklands War related a story to me about the Commanding Officer of the HMS Broadsword in the Battle of San Carlos Bay in 1982. The Brits came under withering air attack from the Argentine airforce (ironically, trained by the United States) and several ships were sunk. Broadsword lost her aft gun mount so was essentially fighting one-handed. The C.O. stood his post on the bridge through the whole fight and according to my friend, "looked bored." At a particularly tense moment, he summoned one of the Mess Cooks to the bridge and inquired what was being prepared for dinner. This was a tremendous turning point. As my friend related, "we all knew we were going to make it through."

Successful cross country running requires this type of courage. It is an inner control. It is not that every runner doesn't experience some measure of fear, performance anxiety, trepidation etc. when they toe the line. It's how we handle it that defines our success. When the starting horn sounds, we know we will be out on a course that is rugged, often hot and dry. Our throats and mouths will dry up. Our stomachs may cramp, our sides may get stitched up. We may experience a fading feeling as we climb "Heartbreak Hill." These are just some of the possibilities that await us in a cross country race. But with courage...mastery of our fear...we push on. And by that mastery, we finish the race. This internal drama is revisited with each meet but the cumulative mastery builds an internal fortitude and courage that we can take with us into our academics, our relations with others and our lives. Just like the Marine Gunnery Seargent and the British CO, we will develop the ability to not only handle the fears and threats that we may face ahead, we can become examples for others around us.

As Clare Booth Luce observed: "Courage is the ladder upon which all the other virtues mount."