WInston Churchill, who should know, wrote that success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. The most courageous act I can think of is to think for myself and speak my truth. I sometimes feel I am surrounded by people who are drawn to being frightened, angry, suspicious.

The people around me are mirrors, and courage is contagious. If I wish to be tolerant, I must be around tolerant people. If I wish to be generous, I must be near generous people. If I wish to be compassionate, I must be around compassionate people.

Every day people bring me stories of outrage, greed, corruption, hatred.

I have thought about this and am finding my own path to courage. For me, it is the courage to continue that counts, the courage to live my life, do my own good, respect the decisions of others. At least half of the country seems to have gone mad, and each half thinks it is the other.

I will not be pulled down into the muck and mire by other people. That, I see, takes courage.

It is a hard time for many, it is especially difficult for people who seek the courage to think for themselves rather than think for a label pasted to their brains.

Courage is not bowing to what others think, but bowing to what I think. I need to look in my mirror every morning and respect the face that I see. Right and wrong is a matter for the individual, not the mob.

I summon the courage to live my life, I will not give up on my life these next several years, I will not turn myself over to anger and fear and then, inevitably hatred. It does not make sense to me that my response to hatred ought to be hatred, to argument more argument, to complaint, more complaint.

I will not be consumed every day by anger and lament. I will not be chasing my tail, day after day.

And I hope I will not sacrifice my own sense of values because others seem sometimes to be losing theirs. The worse they get, the better I will try to be. I will find my small acts of good and I will try to carry them out in a continuous and meaningful way. I will continue to commit what I believe is the revolutionary act of truth. Truth does matter, at least to me.

The ultimate cowardice for me is to ruin my life, to give it over the recrimination and fear. I can’t help what others do, I can help what I do. I will not allow my life to be ruined. I seek to be the hero of my life, not the victim. Of all the virtues, I prize courage the most, because without it, I lose all of the other virtues, they will drown in fear and anger.