Does bravery sometimes only mean that our love is stronger than our fear?

Not necessarily. You can be brave without any relationship to love or another person. bravery can stand on its own.

It can.

Sometimes. And sometimes doing things for love one might think is brave can actually be viewed a stupid and reckless. People do brave things for reasons other than love.

Why not?

Bravery is acting despite knowledge of vulnerability. If one is not aware of being vulnerable, it isn’t a matter of courage.

“Bravery isn’t the absence of fear; it’s being afraid, but doing it anyway.”
In terms of a lover, you might be afraid of doing whatever, but the desire to help them, protect them, or whatever, outweighed the fear.
In terms of a passion you might be afraid to put yourself out there—audition for that play, enter that contest, or what have you, but in the end you decide to go for it because you realize it’s better to try and fail than let fear keep you from what could be the best decision of your life. Thus, the love was stronger than the fear.
Am I making sense? I feel like I got sappy there, lol

Yes. Our bravery, often outweighs our brains. It’s a human strength, or weakness. Sometimes, our bravery proves that we were “right.” You have to choose how to act. Sometimes, the actions outweigh the odds.

Sometimes? Sure. It means that when the situation fits enough that someone makes an idea about that and it seems fitting to someone.

Its a given that as often as not courage is about defiance of one’s own self preservation and a direct challenge to one’s inherent common sense. It is a terrible realization to understand that stupid risks might be required to support “lofty” goals. The key to identifying the extent of the stupidity may be obtained through the emphasis of the word “heroic” in its description.

I wouldn’t describe my situations as heroic . Sometimes yes. But usually a decision I had to make, with just seconds, to make. I made my decisions and often thought about them afterwards. I usually felt like I made the right decision. But there were situations, that I could have made different actions, but decided to move quickly, to avoid other people being hurt. I don’t know if I made the correct decision in each case. But I was cleared by the court, in each case.. I definitely injured some people, and regret it. But, it was situational. Sometimes, it was me vs multiple people. I did what I felt was necessary. I wouldn’t say I loved the people who I protected, I just reacted. I don’t know where that puts me…

It’s just another of life’s ironies when the stupid decision is the right one. I hate it when it’s my turn!

That’sa goodpoint

That’sa good point.

Well. You have to make a decision in every second of your life. What I hated about being a LEO, was that analysis of a situation, after the case, there often wasn’t a “right” decision. And you often had to make some decision, very quickly.
If there’s already a big fight in progress, I usually just picked, which individual was being the most aggressive. Then went from there. If someone had a weapon, I took them down fast, hard, and with no concern for their safety. But I always looked back on those situations, and tried to think about alternative approaches.

In other, non-law enforcement situations, I do the same. What could I have done differently, to avoid the negative effects? Many cases involved kayaking/canoeing. Those were cases where I should have been more wary of the weather, tides, or my surroundings.
I remember once, I was in a power boat, fishing with my Dad. Something dropped into the boat. A Water Moccasin. It must have just been on one of the cypress trees above us. My Dad didn’t say anything, he just jumped out of the boat. I did the same. We watched from a shallow area, until it slithered out of the boat. I wasn’t very happy standing chest deep, in alligator infested water, for about 20 minutes. He didn’t seem to care, that he hadn’t warned me about abandoning ship. He was a special forces sniper, hunter, and killer of men, but he was scared of snakes…

Once, we were in a canoe, he was in the front, because I was heavier than him. We were paddling down the Edisto. Essentially black water swamp. I took him with me, to try to bond with him. As we turned a corner, in the river, there was a Water Moccasin swimming across. They don’t bother you, unless you bother them. Then they become very aggressive. We could have just drifted by it, but nope Dad smashed it with his paddle, briefly submerging it. So now, he’s passed it, but came up pissed, and right next to me, so, I had to hit him with my paddle. Poor snake got a drive by beating. And then we had to paddle fast. The snake was out for revenge, and I was in the rear. We lost it, after a few hundred yards. I gave my father a heated lecture, on the position he put us in. We argued, for a bit, and didn’t talk for about an hour after. He never really admits, when he’s wrong. I don’t think I took him canoeing again. He was/is unpredictable. Hard to make decisions, in unpredictable situations. The only thing predictable, about my father, is that he will be unpredictable.
He later crashed power boat, into a bridge, in Hell Hole Swamp. The only bridge. My mother called me and told me about it. I was like, there’s only one bridge there,and he hit it? Yep…. I have no idea how the man is still alive.

My sister was bitten by a water moccasins when she was 13 or so.

^Booooo. Maybe it was low on venom. We have Copper Heads, and Eastern Rattlesnakes, and Corral Snakes here. Basically, all pit vipers. Copper Heads, are the worst. You just can’t see them. When they are juveniles, you can barely see them at all. They have a yellow tip, on their tail. When I worked at the Veterinary Emergency Hospital, a cleaning guy, said he thought he found a worm. Nope. A baby Copper Head. It could have killed him.We treated a lot of Copperhead bites. Usually, on a dog’s muzzle. They usually turned purple, from the bite, to almost their entire body. Many required blood transfusions.And days, or more in internal medicine. Seems like Jack Russell Terriers, got bit more often than other breeds. I had to treat hundreds, in my years there. I’d say 50 % were JRTs. It was just their thing. They are a busy breed. They also led the list on firecracker related injuries… Interesting, how certain breeds, were over represented, in certain situations. I got to know so much about them, I could pretty much know what was wrong with them, when they came in. We had a lot of vet students, that had to spend a certain amount of time there. I could diagnose, a lot of animals, just from looking at them.
I remember, we had a student from Auburn one summer. I really liked her. We had a 9 year old golden retriever come in one night. Otherwise healthy, sudden lethargy. I told her, as we were going to x-ray, this is a ruptured splenic mass. She just shook her head. 35 minutes later, we were doing a splenectomy. After almost 9 years there, I could bet what was going on with an animal, in a few minutes. I could tell from the sound the animal made, sometimes. Cats only cried out, in a certain way, when afflicted by two conditions. Urinary blockage, or saddle thrombosis. I could diagnose them, from the sounds they made… I baffled many rDVMs, with my experience. Most people only lasted 8 months there. I was there for about 9 years. I’m not a doctor, but almost every animal presented the same way, with the same problem.

Yeah the doc said it was definitely a venomous snake who must have been low on blinker fluid because she didn’t get sick.
It was one of the dangdest moments of my life. I was 17, ready to go to work at Baskin Robbins….but I called in late due to snake bit.

Well. You lucked out. Gladly.

Yes she did. I have a whole story to tell from how she recognized the snake from perusing the Britannica Encyclopedias on snakes and jewels and cats, like all us kids did. Barefoot at the creek she felt it hit her leg, looked over, took a closer look.. and made her way home.
Story tomorrow if you remind my other Dutchess.

Sometimes it’s just doing the right thing that is the driving point. I get pissed off at some act of some creep and I only feel anger, and I do what I think is right. Stand my ground since I chose to get involved. Nobody invited me to the dance but I felt the pull to rock n roll. I hate a bully and it’s always a good feeling when I back them down. Fear? I don’t feel it when all this is going on. I’m pushing 60 years old, and my sister has told me that I’m getting too old for such acts. Now the way I see it is this: GO DOWN PROUD IF YOU MUST FALL. I’d rather do something about it, than to feel like a coward the rest of my life. Cut and run is not in my nature. It isn’t always about love, it’s about who I am.