Courage Comes in Many Forms.

Here is a tale of a kind of courage. Courage comes in many forms, and I saw one the other morning. Sometime in the past this man had his entire nose, the middle of his upper lip and jaw, and part of his pallet removed, leaving a large hole in the center of his face. I don’t know why.
When I first met him he wore a prosthetic device attached to a pair of glasses that mostly hid the destruction. It had a little tab in the middle that sort of fit in the space where his moustache grew, and the sides more-or-less covered the hole. It looked like a rubber nose, the kind you see kids wear as a costume, and that is what it essentially was.
The next time I saw him was about a year later, when he arrived at my house to do some repair work. He got out of the truck with his glasses and nose in place, and walked up to the back door. We shook hands and talked about the job. As he went back to the truck I noticed him take off the glasses and throw them through the window onto the seat. He turned. Not pretty. But a major repair was underway. The jaw and lip surgery was healing nicely and the hole where his nose had been removed was now smaller and less ragged.
I guess he wears the nose at first to keep from shocking or frightening people. And I hope he took it off because he sensed I wouldn’t be shocked. I wasn’t.
This guy has the courage to face the world as he is. Unless challenged we can never know if we have that kind of courage. But we know it when we see it. And I saw it up close and personal. There are thousands of people meeting the world on their own terms. Courage to overcome fear and prejudice comes in many forms. Celebrate it when you see it. Or live it.
Image:http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2008/05/15/300_tank_080514014816328_wideweb__300x300.jpg