h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Surely courage should be defined more broadly as sacrificing (or better, risking) your interests, since it needn't necessarily involve personal safety. Also, this needn't been done on behalf of someone else. Example: we might say it takes courage to spend our money on a risky bunch of shares, even though we lose nothing but some spare cash it our gambit fails and we are motives are purely those of greed.

Whether the motive is greed or someone else's saftey doesn't matter. As long as you do a risky action knowing the possible consequences it can be taken as courageous. Not very true to the implied meaning though . I'm blabbering so I think I'll stop.

By that definition all the guys sitting at the blackjack table in Vegas are courageous. I don't think Wall Street day traders are courageous, I think they willfully chose a risky profession that has a potential for large returns. I don't think either of those represent courage, they represent greed and hope. I think of courage more as being putting your own life/health on the line for somebody else's sake.

I just wanted to point out that in my original entry I defined courage as " the ability to put aside one's own safety, often IN THE INTEREST OF ensuring someone else's" but the "in the interest of" got edited out over my protests. Ah well....

Point taken that courage doesn't always mean risking your own safety. It could also be a risk of reputation, financial health, etc.

It's a nice beer..

Does it take courage to have an affair when she is already married to someone who could mess you up in more ways than one? Or is this better described as lunacy?

In my professional opinion, that would be......lunacy

lunancy, stupidity, and disrespectful

Dare I add my thoughts?
I think perhaps, maybe being courageous could be described as being able to do what you are afraid of doing. Or maybe overcoming your own fears.

I also want to mention a friend of a friend of mine was assigned an essay. Minimum four pages. Assignement: Lazyness. Answer: "This is lazyness. Ain't it?" The first three words took one page each. Or maybe it's an urban legend... It's a good story nonetheless. And a good entry. I'm digressing.