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That Is What Takes Courage

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 18, 1912

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 29.

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That Is What Takes Courage

By Charlotte Perkins Gilman

CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN
It takes great strength to bring your life up square With your accepted thought, and hold it there, Resisting the inertia that drags back From new attempts to the old habit's track. It is so easy to drift back, to sink; So hard to live abreast of what you think.
It takes great strength to live where you belong, When other people think that you are wrong,— People you love, and who love you, and whose Approval is a pleasure you would choose; To bear this pressure and succeed, at length, In living your belief — well, it takes strength,
And courage, too. But what does courage mean Save strength to help you bear a pain foreseen,— Courage to undertake this lifelong strain Of setting yours against your grandsire's brain?
Dangerous risk of walking lone and free Out of the easy paths that used to be; And the fierce pain of hurting those we love When love meets truth, and truth must ride above? —Heroism.