Courage

Bull Riders Are Not Courageous

I realize this is a very provocative statement that could get you beaten up in this rodeo-obsessed little town.  We have three rodeo arenas. Our high school has a rodeo team.  You see calf roping dummies in front of houses instead of basketball standards.  The dictionary defines courage as "the ability to do something that frightens one." In my opinion, bull riders are more fearless than they are courageous.  They seem to be part of a special breed of individuals who can perform amazing stunts that scare the living daylights out of most people without seeming to consider the tremendous risk they are taking.  My eight-year-old son, Eli, is just such a boy.  He will ride his pony up and down terrifyingly steep trails with no consideration of the risk.  He jumped on the back of this steer yesterday without even thinking. His little sister required some prodding.

While I wonder in amazement at acts of fearlessness, it is acts of courage that genuinely inspire me.  I think that is because I have fears, so when I see someone overcome their fears, it inspires me to believe I can do the same.  I saw a simple but powerful example of this recently.  I took a leadership team up a mountain on horseback for a teambuilding event.  One team member, Ron, is deathly afraid of horses (he wouldn't even get close to them), so he rode in a truck up the mountain to the meadow where we did the activities.  The last activity was a competition to saddle a horse correctly.  This picture shows Ron (in the ball cap) watching his team struggling to saddle the horse.  They were almost done, but the saddle was too loose.  Ron saw the solution and bravely stepped forward at the critical moment. Shaking like a leaf, he tightened the horse’s cinch.  All of his teammates were legitimately amazed and congratulated him for "saving the day." I’ll never forget the look of satisfaction on his face and his great example of courage.  I can relate to Ron, and I am far more inspired by his courage than by watching Eli or those crazy, fearless bull riders.