About courage

Some days ago Johanna Rothman published a very interesting blog post named What Does Courage Mean to You?. 

Note: I like a lot her tireless way of writing. 

I decided to reproduce also here the comments I put there, adapted a little bit, and most importantly her insights – I really believe she touched a sensible cord and I hope not only for me. 

At the end of her blog post she says “… Easy to say. Not easy at all to do.

That’s the question: What does courage mean to you?” 

Indeed, not easy at all. When I read her post, 4 things popped up in my head which deeply moved me in the course of time. I will dare to say them. I say dare because this is a deep thing, at least for me, not a fluffy bunny motivational nonsense:

● Giovanni Falcone (sicilian judge killed by Cosa nostra and deviated parts of Italian state): He was asked in a interview(1) if he said the following ‘You said, it seems you said, that: The coward dies several times per day, the brave(‘coraggioso’) just once(‘una volta sola’). This means you do not have fear? ‘ and Giovanni Falcone says’ Well.. important is not to establish if someone has fear or not. Is to know how to live with its own fear and not being let conditioned by it. The courage is this, otherwise it is no longer courage but unconsciousness/recklessness’. 

● Paolo Borsellino (sicilian judge killed by Cosa nostra and deviated parts of Italian state; husband with 3 kids): On the Thursday before his death he received the notification that the bomb had arrived in Palermo for him. Other 3-4 persons in Italy at that moment had a similar big threat at their lives but they left, he stayed. You know what he did? He called urgently his priest for the confession. He wanted to be prepared for the big departure…

● Nicolae Steinhardt (orthodox monk; his ‘Journal of felicity’ book is one of the most precious gifts Romania has; arrested by romanian communists of that time): The authorities tried to convince him to betray his friends. After the first day of the interrogation he returned at home, they wanted to give him time to reconsider. His father (which, in the past, received the Romanian royal order ‘Military Virtue’ and studied with Albert Einstein) asked him why he returned. The father was tough with him(my translation): ‘What else did you come home to, you bastard/you prick(‘nenorocitule’)? You gave them the impression that you were hesitant, that the possibility of betraying your friends could fit. In business, when you say let me think, it means that you have accepted. For nothing in the world do not dare to be the witness to the prosecution’. After some days he had to return at the ‘Securitate’ . Before living the home his father said to him:’And make sure you don’t make fun of me. Don’t be a cowardly Jew and don’t shit in your pants.’ (note, his father was a jew)(2)

● My grandmother: She had 10 years. She was in the orchard with her grandfather, who raised her. We were just occupied by sovietics. A sovietic soldier entered within the orchard. Her grandfather asked him to leave. The soldier wanted to shoot him. My grandmother stood in front of her grandfather. Their luck was that a woman, passing by, speaking Russian calmed down the soldier explaining that her grandfather was the only relative still alive for my grandmother.

So, what does courage mean to me? Well…for me less words. I hope to behave as it should be when needed. Sometimes I have fear that I will not…

I liked a lot Joanna’s reply she said it so nice: “I often see courage in small actions every day… I also realized that we are courageous on a continuum. When we can, we take our fear in our hands and hold it close so it doesn’t blind us. Then, we take that small step to courage. And, when we can’t take our fear? It takes us.” 

After her reply I tried to think at the examples we have in  IT world which I know:

● James Coplien says that he, personally, will give a ‘certification’ to a Scrum Master only when that Scrum Master would have lost the job by doing his/her job… And now when writing this, I think this act of his is an invitation to transcend the apparent and even transparent level of Scrum, he raised the bar(is above dailys, meetings , velocity..). Maybe I am wrong with this interpretation, but wow.

● But this applies also when defending an idea day by day. And when I say this I think to James Bach and Michael Bolton and the testing, the one envisioned by Weinberg. Sometimes I feel they are alone in all this IT world which distorted/twisted the idea of testing, but they do not stop. And how easy would be for them to fake and, maybe, do lots of money…

Johanna touched a very very sensible subject which is/was/will be relevant, at least I hope.

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(1) Falcone:’Importante non è stabilire se uno ha paura, ma imparare a non farsene condizionare, Giovanni Falcone , https://youtu.be/-Ly9XS4iLj8

(2) Și acum despre frică. Valiza lui N. Steinhardt, Gabriel Liiceanu, https://www.contributors.ro/%C8%99i-acum-despre-frica-valiza-lui-n-steinhardt/