Being sharp, keen, and penetrating is the essence of being incisive. Most people think they do not have time to consider issues carefully. They are sloppy thinkers. We value the cultivation of incisiveness, which is the art of considering details. Details matter. In Constitutional law, for example, seemingly innocuous breaches of individual rights can lead to the destruction of the…
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Value for Wednesday of Week 31 in the season of Ripening
Being Brave
Bravery is the act of facing down fear. Unlike courage, it need not involve voluntary risk-taking for the good of others. Bravery is a broader concept.
- Bravery is the capacity to perform properly even when scared half to death. [attributed to Omar N. Bradley]
- There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism. [Alexander Hamilton]
Real
True Narratives
Hawa Abdi's story could be filed under service, heroism, courage, perseverance and many other headings. She is a physician who has braved challenges from a male-dominated Somali culture to provide medical care to displaced adults and children who need it desperately. Her foundation is dedicated to ensuring that health care will be available in the Somali and throughout East Africa.
In the 1870s, Sioux warriors would confront and challenge United States soldiers at close range to draw their fire and distract attention from the rest of the tribe. At Little Big Horn in 1876, Chief Crazy Horse's charge into Custer's forces led the way for the tribe to defeat its nemesis. "Let us kill them all off today, that they may not trouble us anymore," Crazy Horse is said to have exhorted his men as he ordered their charge into Custer's forces. Crazy Horse died in captivity approximately at the age of thirty-six. He was reputed to be a modest but fearless man. Deplore the violence of his time and place as we might, his people were under attack from forces that had invaded their lands. His acts of self-sacrifice under difficult circumstances have been chronicled in these excellent books:
- Thomas Powers, The Killing of Crazy Horse (Alfred A. Knopf, 2010).
- Stephen E. Ambrose, Crazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American Warriors (Doubleday, 1975).
- Mari Sandoz, Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas (Bison Books, 2008).
- Robert A. Clark, ed., The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse: Three Eyewitness Views (Bison Books, 1988).
- Richard G. Hardorff, The Death of Crazy Horse: A Tragic Episode in Lakota History (Bison Books, 2001).
- Joseph M. Marshall III, The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History (Viking Adult, 2004).
- Russell Freedman, The Life and Death of Crazy Horse (Holiday House, 1996).
Other narratives about bravery:
- Tim Jeal, Explorers of the Nile: The Triumph and Tragedy of a Great Victorian Adventure (Yale University Press, 2011). “It takes one kind of bravery to endure extreme discomfort and risk life for earthly, scientific or celestial glory, but quite another to do so for honor alone.”
- Witold Pilecki, The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery (Aquila Polanica, 2012): journals of Witold Pilecki, the only person who volunteered to go to Auschwitz as a prisoner.
- Lindsey Hilsum, In Extremis: The Life and Death of War Correspondent Marie Colvin (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2018): “Hilsum draws an empathetic portrait of a woman whose courage often crossed into recklessness, both in combat zones and outside them.”
- Zahra Hankir, ed., Our Women on the Ground: Essays by Arab Women Reporting from the Arab World (Penguin Books, 2019): “The best piece of advice I’ve ever heard about being a journalist is from the investigative reporter Amy Goodman, who has worked in Nigeria and East Timor, among other places. Goodman said this: ‘Go to where the silence is and say something.’”
- Phil Keith and Tom Craven, All Blood Runs Red: The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard – Boxer, Pilot, Soldier, Spy (Hanover Square Press, 2019): “Wounded so severely that he was deemed unable to return to the trenches, he transferred to a French aviation unit. He soon was the first black American fighter pilot.”
- Arianna Newman, When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father’s War and What Remains (Scribner, 2020): “Yes, her account of one Jewish-Czech family’s race to outwit the Nazis makes for thrilling reading. But just as important is her lucid investigation of the nature of memory, identity and remembrance.”
Technical and Analytical Readings
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
In this scene from Les Misérables, Valjean carries the wounded Marius through the sewer to avoid detection.
It was in the sewers of Paris that Jean Valjean found himself. Still another resemblance between Paris and the sea. As in the ocean, the diver may disappear there. The transition was an unheard-of one. In the very heart of the city, Jean Valjean had escaped from the city, and, in the twinkling of an eye, in the time required to lift the cover and to replace it, he had passed from broad daylight to complete obscurity, from midday to midnight, from tumult to silence, from the whirlwind of thunders to the stagnation of the tomb, and, by a vicissitude far more tremendous even than that of the Rue Polonceau, from the most extreme peril to the most absolute obscurity. An abrupt fall into a cavern; a disappearance into the secret trap-door of Paris; to quit that street where death was on every side, for that sort of sepulchre where there was life, was a strange instant. He remained for several seconds as though bewildered; listening, stupefied. The waste-trap of safety had suddenly yawned beneath him. Celestial goodness had, in a manner, captured him by treachery. Adorable ambuscades of providence! Only, the wounded man did not stir, and Jean Valjean did not know whether that which he was carrying in that grave was a living being or a dead corpse. [Victor Hugo, Les Misérables (1862), Volume V – Jean Valjean; Book Third – Mud But the Soul, Chapter I, “The Sewer and Its Surprises”.]
Novels:
- Win Blevins, Stone Song: A Novel of the Life of Crazy Horse (Forge, 1995).
- John Brandon, Ivory Shoals: A Novel (McSweeney’s Publishing, 2021): “A Trek Across Florida, Braving Deadly Swamps and Bounty Hunters”.
- Kristin Hannah, The Women: A Novel (St. Martin’s Press, 2024): “If you grew up in the 1980s, the Vietnam redemption arc was imprinted on your gray matter by a stampede of young novelists and filmmakers coming to grips with their foundational trauma: patriotic innocence shattered by the barbarity of jungle warfare; the return home to a hostile nation; the chasm of despair and addiction; and finally, the healing power of activism.”
Poetry
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida (1870) (approx. 140-165’) (libretto) (list of recorded performances) is about “the impossible love of the brave commander Radames and the captive Abyssinian Princess Aida . . .” As early as the second scene, Aida’s romantic interest Radamès is described as “brave and young”. As with the slaves, though bravery is not enough to ensure success. “. . . Verdi uses the rousing music of the Egyptian armies and the sorrowful laments of the Ethiopian slaves to display both the heroism and struggles that form a part of national pride.” Here are links to video-recorded performances with M. Price & Pavarotti; Freni & Domingo; and Aaron & Aldrich. Top audio-recorded performances feature: Giannini, Minghini-Cattaneo, Pertile & Inghilleri (Sabajno) in 1928; Arangi-Lombardi, Capuana, Lindi, Borgioli & Pasero (Molajoli) in 1928; Tebaldi, Stignani, del Monaco, Protti & Corena (Erede) in 1952; Callas, Tucker, Barbieri, Gobbi & Modesti (Serafin) in 1955; Milanov, Björling, Barbieri, Warren & Christoff (Perlea) in 1955; Tebaldi, Bergonzi, MacNeil, Simionato & Van Mill (Karajan) in 1959; Price, Vickers & Merrill (Solti) in 1961; Caballé, Domingo, Cossotto, Cappuccilli & Ghiaurov (Muti) in 1974 ***; and Harteros, Kaufmann, Semenchuk, Tézier & Schrott (Pappano) in 2016.
Giuseppe Verdi, Nabucco (1841) (approx. 122-130’) (libretto) (list of recorded performances) is an operatic recounting of the biblical tale of King Nebuchadnezzar (Nabucco) of Babylon, and his enslavement of Hebrews. Their bravery is captured in this famous chorus, which members of the Odessa opera performed during the Russian war against Ukraine. “The well-known mythical narrative refers to the Masada Jews as heroic Zealots or Jewish warriors who, when besieged by the Roman army, bravely resisted the siege for months until the army breached the fortress walls.” They are captured and enslaved; the opera portrays them as dignified and unbowed. Video recordings feature ; ; ; ; Morosow (Märzendorfer) in 2007; Domingo (Kohn) in 2013; and Gagnidze (Oren). Top audio-recorded performances are by: Gobbi, Souliotis, Carral, Prevedi (Gardelli) in 1965; Manuguerra, Luchetti, Ghiaurov & Scotto (Muti) in 1978; and Nucci, Domashenko, Dvorsky & Prestia (Luisi) in 2001.
Richard Wagner, Siegfried, WWV 86C (1857) (approx. 248-255’) (libretto) (list of recorded performances): in this, the third opera from Wagner’s Ring cycle, the theme is that Siegfried’s sword can be made whole only by one who knows no fear. Of course, that is Siegfried. He slays the giant Fafner but that part is easy for him. “Siegfried safely reaches the Rock where Brünnhilde sleeps. He sees a sleeping person in full armor. When he removes the armor, he sees a woman for the first time in his life. Now he has learned to fear, and an overpowering feeling takes possession of him. He takes courage and kisses her to awaken her.” Unfortunately, the title character does not demonstrate many other worthy qualities. The character Mime observes: “A brave and foolish boy, / Siegfried, can slay the foe.” In her comedy routine, Anna Russell explained: “He’s very young, and he’s very handsome, and he’s very strong, and he’s very brave, and he’s very stupid—he’s a regular Li’l Abner type” “Siegfried is certainly brave but he acts only in his own interest at all times.” The story is a window into Wagner’s idea of heroism, and his politics. Here is a link to Fritz Lang’s memorable “Nibelungen Saga”, discussed here. Performances with video feature Ryan (Mehta) in 2008; Vinke (Janowski) in 2016; and Franz (Ádám Fischer) in 2016. Best audio recorded performances are by: Melchior, Laufkötter, Schorr & Flagstad (Bodanzky) in 1937; Suthaus, Patzak, Frantz & Mödl (Furtwängler) in 1953; Windgassen, Kuën, Hotter & Varnay (Krauss) in 1953; Windgassen, Kuën, Hotter, Varnay & (Keilberth) in 1955; Aldenhoff, Kuën, Hotter & Varnay (Knappertsbusch) in 1957; Windgassen, Stolze, Hotter & Nilsson (Solti) in 1962; Windgassen, Wohlfahrt, Adam & Nilsson (Böhm) in 1966; and O’Neill, Goerne, Cangelosi, van Mechelen & Melton (van Zweden) in 2017.
Julius Eastman, “Gay Guerrilla” (1979) (approx. 29'): From a single repeated note, Eastman builds a relentless, accumulating wall of sound, and after some twenty minutes Luther's old Reformation battle-hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" rises up out of the bass and seizes the texture — a fortress-anthem of defiance repurposed as a queer war-cry. Eastman explained the title without flinching: a guerrilla is someone prepared to give his life, even his blood, for a cause, and there is no cause without that willingness — so to name the piece, and himself, "gay guerrilla" was to enlist, to declare that being fully who he was, a Black, gay, avant-garde man in a country that had criminalized and marginalized every part of that, was worth fighting and dying for. What the music enacts is that enlistment: not a plea for tolerance but a gathering, overwhelming act of nerve, the sound of a man standing his ground under fire and refusing to be anything less than his whole self.
Other works:
- Roy Harris, Symphony No. 6, “Gettysburg” (1944) (approx. 28’): “Written in 1944 during the height of the Second World War, the movements of Harris’ Symphony draw inspiration from the outline of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. They celebrate a mythic vision of American progress in which growing pains give way to the possible future realization of the nation’s loftiest ideals.”
- Walter Piston, Symphony No. 6 (1955) (approx. 26’) (list of recorded performances): “Listening to Piston’s Sixth Symphony is like entering a musical dream. It’s a free-flowing stream of conversing instrumental voices and shifting motivic cells.” Piston sought to emphasize the integrity of each instrumental voice, and brought the work to a celebratory conclusion.
- Arnold Bax, Piano Sonata No. 2 in G major (1919) (approx. 24-28’) (list of recorded performances) reflects on the events of the Easter Rising in Ireland. “On Easter Monday 1916, Irish nationalists launched an armed revolt against British rule in Ireland. Although quickly suppressed by the British Army, the rising was a seminal moment in modern Irish history, helping pave the way to the nation's independence in 1922.”
- Steve Elcock, Choses renversées par le temps ou la destruction (Things Overturned in Time or Destruction) is a “a dark symphonic triptych where fragile beauty is constantly at threat from the forces of ignorance” (2013) (approx. 24’).
Albums:
- Fantastic Negrito, “White Jesus Black Problems” (2022) (41’): “The tunes are based on Negrito’s seventh-generation removed ancestors; a white Scottish indentured servant living in a common-law marriage with an African American slave in 1750s Virginia. This was, not surprisingly, against the law at the time and a radical situation that exhibited incredible bravery on the part of the participants.”
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Sara Bareilles, “Brave” (lyrics)
- Nawang Khechog, “Tiananmen Square” (for Chinese Warriors)
- Bon Jovi, "It's My Life" (lyrics)
- Rascal Flatts, "Stand" (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Paul Klee, Fire in the Evening (1929)
- John Everett Millais, The Rescue (1855)
- Giotto, Fortitude (1302-05)
Film and Stage
- Bravehert, about living courageously and then facing death bravely
- The Spiral Staircase, a thriller with a young woman’s bravery as a motif
- Captain Blood: the film version of Rafael “Sabatini’s gentleman corsair”