Katie’s Musings: Bravery

I’ve been thinking about bravery.  What exactly constitutes bravery?

The dictionary is pretty clear:  “the quality or state of having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty : the quality or state of being brave.”

Harry Potter world would have us believe that the Gryffindor house is the epitome of bravery – acts of derring do and disregard for personal safety in those acts.  Yeah, that’s totally brave, no question.

My question is whether it is actually definable.  Can one definitively define bravery?  ‘Cause Harry Potter world thinks you can, and OH, the internet really thinks you can.  And quite frankly, I’m tired of it.  Because the internet scales of measurement are never fair.  They’re clickbait.  They’re intended to make us crazy and fight each other – anything for the clicks and the views.  Literally, that’s their entire purpose.  Algorithms.  It’s not real.

Here’s what I’m pretty sure is real:  bravery is unquantifiable or definable.  Because a person is unquantifiable or definable.  Bravery is totally a soldier rushing to the aid of a fallen comrade, or a firefighter running into a burning building to save a child, or Harry Potter willing to risk everything to defeat Voldemort.  But it’s also that great Slytherin Severus Snape living in secret to protect Harry on behalf of a mother who can’t.  It’s a kid on a playground standing up to a bully, a person with body issues wearing a swimsuit in public, an artist creating something intensely personal and sharing it with the world, and a human with a gender inscribed on their birth certificate declaring that actually isn’t right and living into their self and their truth.  Bravery has a lot less to do with derring do or taking sides than it does with an individual’s willingness to be vulnerable on behalf of the greater good, to show someone else precisely who they are and who or what exactly they are willing to put themselves on the line for.
Gryffindors are brave.  But so are Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and yes, even Slytherins.  No more, and no less.  It might look different, and recognizing it might make you profoundly uncomfortable for some reason… but it’s still bravery.  We are all different.  So of course bravery is.

Bravery doesn’t stop being bravery just because you don’t understand the person acting bravely or their motivations.

Just like a human doesn’t stop being a human just because you don’t understand them.

Lack of understanding is actually not a valid excuse for dehumanization.  It is, instead, a reason to seek further understanding.  That’s our job, really, our rent for taking up residence on this planet.  As people of God, that’s quite literally what we are called to do, and moreover, a great example of bravery.  If that Jesus guy was to be believed, anyway…..

OH HEY, know one of the things I think is brave?  Believing in a country enough to be willing to fight for it, particularly when that country has told you time and time again in a variety of ways that you are not worthy to be a part of it because of who you are or who you love or your nation or origin or your religion.  That’s brave.

And so are a lot of other things, too.