The Courage of Intimacy Social courage . It is the courage to invest one's self over a period of time in a relationship that will demand an increasing openness.
Intimacy requires courage because risk is inescapable.
We cannot know at the outset how the relationship will affect us. Will we grow . The one thing we can be sure of is that if we let ourselves fully into the relationship for good or for evil, we will not come out unaffected. A common practice in our day is to avoid working up the courage required for authentic intimacy by shifting the issue to the body . . .