For those millennials who grew up watching Cartoon Network and are familiar with the show "Courage The Cowardly Dog," this article should be easy to follow. To others who don’t know what I am talking about, I would recommend watching a few episodes before reading the article, this to make more sense to you.
The show portrays an anthropomorphic dog that was saved from starvation by a kind old lady named Muriel. Courage is pampered and well looked after, but his life is made bittersweet by the presence of her husband, Eustace, who is abusive to Courage. They live on a farm in "The Middle of Nowhere" and are visited by all kinds of supernatural and/or paranormal events.
Courage being weak, defenseless and mostly dependent on Muriel, is always scared of everything from his own shadow to a chicken (with red eyes) from outer space that seems to visit them quite often. Every single thing that seems to exist in the cartoon reality universe seems to scare Courage. But ironically, he is the one who always acts to save the day in the end. He clumsily stumbles at every turn and corner and makes no gestures worthy of being called a hero. But he always manages to save Muriel and also Eustace as well, begrudgingly after Muriel's request.
A great soul once said, “Courage is not the absence of fear, but the action in the presence of it." It will stand true to the end of time I suppose. In an era of being bombarded with information from all over the planet and being faced with change affecting our entire planet, Courage seems to remind us of an important lesson we have all chosen to forget.
That it’s OK to be scared and vulnerable. That it’s OK to let yourself fear the future or whatever else it is that plagues your soul. That true courage and bravery are made possible only after we admit to ourselves our deepest fears and vulnerabilities. Only then can we truly overcome them and be cleansed of ourselves from it and truly make a choice without "fear" dictating it.
