explore more this weekend: courage
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Alex Honnold’s stunning free solo climb of El Capitan has all our households in a spin—the skill, the strength and the courage! We just can’t stop thinking about him and talking about that climb.
But courage comes in many flavours, don’t you think? Here are some more 'courage' links from around the web, plus a few favourite books and a movie.
| Raising courageous kids requires courageous parenting! Includes this truth from Peter Gray:
“Nothing in life is without risk. When we deprive our children of taking the risks that they must take to grow in competence, confidence, and courage, we run the greater and ultimately more tragic risk that they will never learn to take charge of their own lives.”
| We’re a bit enamoured with these dolls and this one is draped in Sweet William—the Victorian-era flower for courage. Such wonderful celebrations of the courage of Australian convict women.
| A Rabbi writes about the confluence of courage and curiosity—and how much we need both in troubling times. Love this:
“New research shows that hope is not an emotion; it is a habit of mind that can be cultivated and chosen. … So now I carry this sign when I go to marches: The arc of the moral universe is longer than I thought, but it still bending.”
| Kim: Clint Smith is my poet du jour. I love reading his written words as much as listening when he speaks them. Here he is on “The Danger of Silence”:
So much wisdom. He says that he hangs four signs in his classroom each year, I think they’re fundamental to living a courageous life:
- Read Critically
- Write Consciously
- Speak Clearly
- Tell Your Truth
| Courage isn't all about social justice—sometimes it’s about having the moves! Funny:
| Courage can also be about changing the world by lifting and encouraging the people near you, like this wonderful barber who gives discounts to kids who read out loud while getting a haircut. Hero.
“But in addition to being desperate, these new boat people are courageous, and not just physically. They have the heart to leave everything they know behind, to make themselves anew somewhere else. In this sense, they’re better than most of us.”
(You might also like to have a look at our collection of books about refugees because ‘when children hear the stories of refugees they get to know some of bravest, most resourceful people on the planet’)
| A favourite movie: Live and Become—the absorbing story of a boy whose Ethiopian mother is courageous in ways no mother should have to be when she sends her son to live in Israel, and the courage of the boy as he adapts to a new life, family, religion, and homeland. It’s a movie that will occupy your thoughts and enrich your life. (Probably best for teens and up—there are some difficult themes, some swearing, some violence and one ever so slightly sexy scene.)
| 3 picture books about courage:
| 3 YA books (which you might like to read aloud too).
| 3 books for adults:
| From The Wizard of Oz, this encouragement:
“You have plenty of courage, I am sure,” answered Oz. “All you need is confidence in yourself. There is no living thing that is not afraid when it faces danger. The true courage is in facing danger when you are afraid, and that kind of courage you have in plenty.”
And lastly, here's the link to our 'courage' category. Enjoy your weekend!
(Most Fridays we choose and expand a category from our 'explore more' page—we hope you enjoy taking a wander around the web with us!)
