What is Courage?

To wake up one morning,with the news that: one dear one is not with you in this world is so sad, .......'beyond words. One morning brought the news of my cousin's death due to cancer. CANCER…just the word scares most people .The moment we think of a person afflicted with cancer,we think of a person waiting for his death to come helplessly.-Even if they are given best treatment,costliest dose of injection, their eyes seem to be staring at the zero,and looking at a blank.Even if they seem normal overtly,a deep dive into their eye seem to have lots of disturbances inside. Here when you come to meet them,they do not seem to be happy,they do not even complain and just respond to your visit with a very plain smile with a mystery that's. so diffiicult to understand.The whole lot of life's philosophy could be deciphered here in their scribbled bits of life. My cousin died of cancer after battling it for three years.I remember people saying to me : 'Hema, madhukar is so brave,' and i have never really understood that statement.People have said it through the years and I affirm it today-Madhukar had great courage! I have always admired their faith.But I used to say,'why do you call it courage?what's. so brave about it?why do you say it's courage when somebody's fighting a battle of cancer. It's courageous because a person who fights a brave battle with a terminal illness is making a commitment: There can be no courage unless there is a choice between alternatives.One is to slip away quickly and other is to hang in there as bravely and optimistically as possible until God stops the heartbeat. Why a person chooses to live optimistically with thousand rays of hope?why he clings to his life,when he knew all the situation are going adversely.The tablets,the doses all administered is taken inside the body so unwillingly. It is all because of courage which is the other side of love.He is exalting courage because he loves his life so much that he will fight everyday through the pain of chemotherapy and radiationand the near &dear one who will always support him as if to say,"I t tur ake you for better,for worse,for richer or poorer,in sickness and in health,till death do us part". Courage is required for all the things in your life.courage is required to love,to hate,to nurture enemity,or to forgive.It takes courage to love because when you love someone you become emotionally involved .you run the risk of being rejected. Again,to hate someone you need courage because then you are not able to accept what comes your way.It takes courage to accept some things that life puts before you. It takes courage to forgive someone because then you'd have to swallow your pride.Only brave people dare to be humble! It also takes courage to go outside in the bright hot warm day and here also we try to choose between. two alternatives and we try to delay our work until the sun becomes humble.It takes courage to fight against injustice.we just move on our way,without paying any heed towards it.we don't. mediate even if we know one party is totally wrong. It even takes courage to write something because here also is an alternative of acception & rejection. So is there any difference of opinion if i say-courage is required in every step of life,that too in different types and levels.