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A N A M A Z I N G O R D I NA RY H E R O
gear was hardly noticeable.”2 Delta mechanics who repaired the plane said the damage was amazingly minor—only a few hundred dollars of sheet metal was required to repair the engine cowling. They also located the faulty locking pin that prevented the landing gear from lowering into position. The crew and others around him said my dad reacted as though this were just another landing. Oddly, he later told me that he felt tremendously afraid during the whole ordeal of landing his malfunctioning plane. My father thought of himself as a very ordinary man, just doing his job. Isn’t this really what courageous people are—just ordinary people doing extraordinary things . . . people who feel compelled to act on behalf of others when there is often significant personal risk involved? Courage is not being unafraid. It’s about choosing to do the right thing under difficult circumstances. Courageous individuals are people not caught up in their own importance or presuming that they’re somehow more virtuous or impervious than others. We are surprised when we hear how ordinary people have rescued someone who fell into the path of a subway or from some other potential disaster. Their typical explanation is, “Someone needed to do something. I was there and just did what I could.” They usually appear embarrassed about all the fuss being made over their heroic status, while they’re being interviewed on Fox News.
THE COURAGE OF OUR CONVICTIONS In an earlier chapter we talked about the masks people often wear to facilitate normal day-to-day interactions with others. I 149
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