It didn’t take long for CNN anchor Fredricka Whitfield to realize that when she referred to the Dallas police station shooter as courageous and brave that she’d made a mistake. Luckily, social media and ten million news sources exist to remind her.She apologized today and says that she misspoke.Fair enough. I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt on this, even though courageous and brave aren’t the first words that I think of when I hear that someone has armed himself with a gun and started spraying bullets, police station or not. Our insistence upon instantaneous reporting and analysis of the news leads to such mistakes quite often. I suppose it’s the price we pay for our lack of patience.However, I think we’re ignoring the fact that courageous and brave are perhaps two of the most overused words in the English language.I’m not an etymologist (one who studies the origins and history of words), but I suspect that courageous and brave have long been reserved for use in life-and-death situations. For example, the story of the U.S. soldier who single-handedly overcame a number of German soldiers from a defensive position during World War II, that dude was courageous.Firefighters who run into burning buildings while everyone else is running out are courageous.
Michael Jordan was not courageous when he played a basketball game in 1997 while having flu-like symptoms and scored 38 points. He was impressive. He was athletic. He was determined. But he wasn’t courageous, despite Marv Albert’s claims to the contrary.Pete Sampras was not courageous when he puked on a court during a match in the 1996 U.S. Open. His dedication and drive were inspiring, especially considering he was still grieving the death of his coach a few months earlier. He was sick, but it wasn’t courageous.I don’t know when courageous began to be overused. I suspect it occurred within the last thirty or forty years as media and sports coverage has become more pervasive. We’re more aware of other things happening in the world, and when we see someone do something that we wouldn’t or couldn’t do, especially if they’re facing obstacles, we figure they must possess some quality that we lack that allows them to do that which we cannot.But it’s important to remember that one person’s courage is another person’s idiocy.The first example of this debate that came to mind is Alexander Supertramp. That’s the name that a kid born into a well-to-do family, Christopher McCandless, gave himself. Then he gave up all his possessions, his money, and the life he knew, to wander around the U.S. and eventually to live in the Alaskan wilderness. He’s the guy whose story is told in the book and film Into the Wild.Some call him courageous. That’s one word for him. Idiot is another. Where you come down on that question probably has more to do with you than with him.True acts of courage are recognized universally.I suspect that we throw around words like courage and bravery because it’s easier to do so than to admit that most of us aren’t in positions where we have to be courageous or brave. Devoid of any actual life-and-death situations, we apply it to any situation in which we experience hardship, whether we’ve made the right decision or not.If I’m at the beach and I see someone drowning in the rip currents, I might jump in to save them even though I know the rip currents might take me out, too. But if I can’t swim and I jump in to save the drowning person, am I courageous? I’ve just made a bad situation worse. I’m not courageous, I’m an idiot.Before we use the word courage, perhaps we ought to take a moment and think about it. Is it courageous to quit a job that you hate? Is it courageous to wear a Speedo to the beach? Is it courageous to ask that girl in your English class to prom? Is it courageous to tell your parents the truth when you know it will get you in trouble?No.Is it courageous to cheapen such a word by applying it to mundane acts that millions of people have “accomplished” before you? Yes.And doing so might actually make you an idiot.PREVIOUS POST: Defending My Real Housewives FandomIF YOU LIKED THIS POST I BET YOU'LL ALSO LIKE: Sometimes We're Absolutely Wrong+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++