“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all. From now on you'll be traveling the road between who you think you are and who you can be. The key is to allow yourself to make the journey.”- Meg Cabot
When we were walking back to our hostel tonight after some delicious Greek food, I saw a shorter version of this quote on a trash can. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about courage and what it means to be of courageous mind and character. Courage is the ability to recognize that you may have fear about something, but you decide to work through that fear for a bigger purpose. And this message was on a trash can.
Seeing this quote reminded me of a young lady who gave us a tour at the African Leadership Academy. She was from Ghana and someone asked her how she found out about ALA. Timidly, she expressed that she was embarrassed to tell us that she had found the application on a trash can. Finding that application changed the course of her life. If her eyes weren't open to the world around her, even the trash cans, she would have missed it.
Trash cans are normally utilized merely for the disposal of trash, however in South Africa I've found and heard stories of how they provided opportunity and food for thought. What a great use of a communal space and changing the connotation of a common communal object.
In Solidarity,
Crys
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