The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1943-12-29

Successful dealing with our NOR
bid fears involves more than the
objective conformation of them,
the wise use of our imagination in
handling them, and the elimination
of guilty furtiveness as one major
cause of them; it involves the posi-
tive substitution of courage for
them, and in ordinary daily life
courage springs from two main
sources, unselfishness and faith.
The egocentric self-pitier Is nat
urally a coward. His representative
concern about himself incapacitates
him for either brave endurance OF
daring venturesomeness. When call
for valor or intrepidity comes, his
spine turns out to be made, as Mark
Twain said, "of boiled macaroni,"
and this inherent weakness 1t Is not
within his power by force of will
to overcome. Being still at child
ish stage of personal development,
self -concerned, self-centered, self
pity, he inevitably reacts to diff
Guilty and danger not with courage
but with alibis and escapes.
Courage is a concomitant of
loyalty, devotion self commitment.
We are naturally brave on behalf
of those persons or causes to which
we have given ourselves. In this
sense the New Testament Is psyche
logically right: Perfect love casteth
out fear" To be sure, love also pro-
duceS fear.
Because a mother loves her chill
dren, or a patriot his country, or an
artist his work, anxiety arises on
behalf Of the loved object. That
however, Is not half the story. A
mothers bravery on behalf Of her
children Is notorious, and In every
realm when courage rises to great
heights, love, loyalty, devotion, self
commitment are at the root OF It,
1t requires an emotion to drive out
an emotion, and fear Is too power
full a feeling to be dealt with by
the emotional forces Of self-cen-
teredness and self-pity. Even the
motive of self representation, while it
can sustain q fierce fight to the
death, is never at its strongest and
most enduring until the "self" we
are trying to preserve is identified
with persons, causes. and values to
which we are indissolubly joined.
Awareness of social need, alb
sorbed interest in meeting 1t, self
forgetfulness in the face Of it-all
great courage is Of this outgoing
quality.
Only so are those characters pro-
duced who when they are afraid
feel that it makes no difference
whether they are afraid or not.
Values are at stake so much more
important than their fear, that that
is a secondary matter. OF course
they are afraid!
According to one Of Lincoln's
stories, two men were charging side
by side in o battle of the Civil War.
Said one, "Why, you're pale as a
sheet: you look like a ghost; be-
lieve you're afraid" Said the other.
Eyes, 7 am, and II you were half
as much afraid as am you'd have
run long ago"
In this sense Jesus In the Garden
of Gethsemane was afraid--h1s
horror at the physical brutality and
public shame of crucitixation are
part and parcel Of the scenes real
ity-but what difference did that
make? BY love, loyalty. and self
commitment he was incorporated
with a cause that did not indeed
eliminate fear but submerged 1t,
made of it a secondary matter, pres
ent but not dominant.
Brave spirits often set fear to
catch o fear. From soldiers to whom
the times comes, as Coningsby
Dawson said, when ones only fear
is supreme fear lest one may fall
to do ones duty, to men like the
early Calvinists of whom 1t was said
that they feared God so much that
they never feared anything else at
all, this suppression Of fear by fear
has been notably illustrated. OBJ
viously, however, this higher fear Is
not negative but positive; It Is an
integral part Of ones loyalty and
devotion; at Its best 1t Is love for
family, vocation, nation. cause.
world, God, that enables one to