Samwise Gamgee was the real hero of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I’m just going to throw that our there.
Don’t believe me?
Sam is the hero because he just wanted a normal life but because he loved his friend so much he was willing to give up a normal life to help Frodo with his quest. J.R.R. Tolkien even said that he considered Sam the “chief hero” of his saga.
That is courageous in my book. Sam went up against monsters and pure evil and had several chances to turn back and run away but he didn’t; he stayed with Frodo until the end. He didn’t go into it thinking “Hey I’ll go throw this ring in Mount Doom and save the world then maybe we’ll go have a pint down at the pub. No biggie.” Ummm, no. He basically was scared 99.9% of the time; but he stayed and he finished anyway.
Courage isn’t something that we are born with, it’s something we earn and discover about ourselves.
I don’t think you can just wake up one day and go “I think I’ll start being courageous today!” It takes something extraordinary in ourselves to realize that we are scared to do that big project that needs done – and then we do it anyway.
Just because you don’t fight monsters or save the world on a normal basis doesn’t mean your not courageous.
Courage means:
An artist who puts their work up for other people to love or criticize.
A mom who quits her job to stay at home to be with her daughter.
A woman who leaves the corporate world to start up her own business.
An author who sends out query letters again and again even after getting those nasty rejection letters.
How are you courageous?
This post is a part of Momalom’s Five for Ten series!
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I agree fully that courage is something we discover in ourselves. And it is something that we discover over and over because we must.
Thrilled to have found my way here via the lovely sisters at Momalom!
Just because you don’t fight monsters or save the world on a normal basis doesn’t mean your not courageous.
That is so true. I definitely believe that even regular, every day things make us brave. We don't need to be heros to also be courageous.
Very well said!
I always liked that Samwise! I couldn't agree with you more–courage is how you choose to act, not necessarily the acts you do.
I never thought of myself as brave. And in trying to come up with my own Courage post, I struggled quite a bit. My past shows a full palette of decisions that APPEAR brave, sure, but really just look stupid to me. But I realized that my recovery from those stupid decisions was indeed courageous. And now, the littlest, tiniest, teeniest things show me that I am strong, I am powerful, and that in many ways, I have been my own guide to a courageous woman. I have learned from mistakes and also by example. I think it is the trial and error of life that really shows us how strong we can be if we can just learn to push ourselves out of the comfort zone, and find the courage to march on.
I never thought of myself as brave. And in trying to come up with my own Courage post, I struggled quite a bit. My past shows a full palette of decisions that APPEAR brave, sure, but really just look stupid to me. But I realized that my recovery from those stupid decisions was indeed courageous. And now, the littlest, tiniest, teeniest things show me that I am strong, I am powerful, and that in many ways, I have been my own guide to a courageous woman. I have learned from mistakes and also by example. I think it is the trial and error of life that really shows us how strong we can be if we can just learn to push ourselves out of the comfort zone, and find the courage to march on.
I am over from Momalom.
Love the analogy of Lord of the Rings. My husband and I love the trilogy. I do agree that Sam was the real hero, the one who was truly courageous. Something about Sam's courage was unconditional and that is what made it so real. As far as your list about courage, I can so relate. I gave up my career to stay home with my daughter. I don't regret it, but it does take courage to leave what you know to embrace the unpaved way of a new path.
All those things take courage…and a lot of it! It's all one courageous step at a time.
Courage really is something different depending on what you are facing, living in your life isn't it? Sometimes it's something so simple and others it's so hard, but it's a choice as you say, it exists within us all and it can be powerful in a many different ways. Stopping over from Five for Ten!
Thanks Kim! It didn't occur to me at first either but the second time I watched the Fellowship I started to see him as more than just a super sidekick!
I was one of those people until I realized how hard it was to be a mom and a business owner. Then I started to see how the smallest person can be couragous just by doing what needs to be done. : )
When I watched the trilogy I realized near the end that Sam was the hero of the story – didn't occur to me before that point. Super example
love your examples. I think often people look to big extreme cases for proof of courage, and it is the every day life decisions that matter and make a difference (cause lets face it, most of us don't get to fight with a dragon or a terrorist)
I was one of those people until I realized how hard it was to be a mom and a business owner. Then I started to see how the smallest person can be couragous just by doing what needs to be done. : )