Too Scared To Be Cowardly

Don't pretend, as you read this, that it isn't fear of embarassment that drives you to succeed. It isn't getting the A+ on the paper that motivates us. Rather, what motivates us is the peeping Tom sitting next to you (or in this case, sitting in front of his computer) who may or may not scough at a D. What motivates us is knowing that what's on the line is more than just your life; it's your reputation, it's your dignity, it's your happiness, it's your sanity.


Thomas Fuller once said that "some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away." I agree, and so, I'm sure, would Tim O'Brien. Mr. O'Brien is a man that sat on the edge of the rubicon river (or was it the rainy river?) and weighed his options. He stood between Canada and Vietnam. It was death or death. One death is literal, one figurative. He says of the figurative:

"and what was so sad, I realized, was that Canada had become a pitiful fantasy. Silly and hopeless. It was no longer a possibility. Right then, with the shore so close, I understood that I would not do what I should do. I would not swim away from my hometown and my country and my life. I would not be brave. That old image of myself as a hero, as a man of conscience and courage, all that was just a threadbare pipe dream." (57).

The irony here comes with O'Briens definition of the brave course of action: going to Canada. But why?

Yes, Vietnam is a risk and, true, one may never leave alive. However, if one does survive they can still return home to some semblance of the life they once knew. Canada, on the other hand, means a very real point of no return and a very real new beginning. Canada means leaving your unsupportive father and picking up hockey as a new hobby. Canada means goodbye to a best friend's I love you's and hello to your new oot and aboot neighbor. Canada means trading Grandma and Auntie Tess for Wayne Gretzky and Celine Dione.


Alright, just kidding about that last one... but seriously.

Choosing Vietnam, though, only means putting that now supportive father, that best friend's i love you's, Grandma, and Auntie Tess up as collateral in exchange for a gun and a few new brothers, each willing to take a bullet for you. Aside from your life (and maybe your mind) what do you really stand to lose?

The answer is quite simply, nothing. You have a home that will still feel like a home even if it's on the other side of the world. You have a family that still loves you even if it's on the other side of the world. You have hope. Hope is the blanket that you can wrap yourself in when bullets fly and the night is dark and oh so cold. It is hope that inspires your next breath. The absence of hope is fear. The absence of hope is Canada. Therefore, by the transitive property of mathematics (and of blogger rationalization) fear is Canada and Canada is fear. It would take more courage to go to Canada and face your fears than it would to go to Vietnam and cling to hope.


At least when you have hope you want to take your next breath. You know?