Courage is often associated with saying yes to intimidating or dangerous situations, when in reality, courage does not always involve confronting danger. It takes guts to walk away from what is not meant for you or that is ethically defective. Saying no while everyone else is involved takes guts to stand alone. To slay the dragon in order to play the hero requires guts. But braver is the one who turns their back on the dragon when everyone else is bending down. Individuals who blaze their own route are the embodiment of courage.
This is because peer pressure poses a serious danger to your opinion. Staying with the throng is an evolutionary behavior that provides protection in numbers. However, there is some similarity in numbers. Show me a single spirit who has gone its own path, who is not frightened to be alone, who will confront any inconveniences or threats that may arise, and who is strong. They may be quiet and humble, but they most likely have a strong inner moral compass. To submit to a corrupt and unfair system is worse than death. Their devotion is not to a country or an ideology, such as capitalism, but to right and wrong. For them, doing good is right, and showing no mercy is evil. They refuse to compromise their morals since it is the ultimate humanizing factor. Those who have lost their sense of justice have fallen into the hands of the worst evil. But the bold have a clear moral compass that always points the way. This yardstick may be used to determine your amount of courage: do you follow what is kind, or do you stand with the selfish?
Democracy was a popular notion throughout my lifetime. It functioned as the political standard by which nations were measured. However, my college classmates and I saw beyond democracy to a system that benefited society as a whole. Rather of championing everyone's rights, as democracy did, Communism extolled socialistic notions of a government that supplied for all equally. It was a romanticized picture of a society that could depend on its government to equally divide the rewards of its inhabitants' labor. If you've ever lived in poverty and struggled to make ends meet, you'll understand the sense of futility.
Mexicans were hungry and living in primitive conditions, and this was never far from my thoughts. It saddened me to see my compatriots suffering and hungry while the Americans had so much. When I heard the concepts of Communism, it sounded like the solution. But that fantasy evaporated when I discovered there were no politicians who would not take from the public. And politicians despised and prosecuted Communist followers because they posed a danger to their mainstream democracy. They could sell democracy to the public, the concept of the typical guy creating his own fortune.
However, Communism demanded that the government respond to the people, something they clearly did not desire. So the capitalists referred to us as a threat to the government, when in reality we were a threat to their dishonesty and greed. It is clear that capitalism, despite its lofty ideals, did not result in fairness for all. It has not resulted in widespread wealth. It has resulted in a severely stratified economic class structure of affluent and poor. The daring person does not subscribe to any particular system or ideology that goes beyond the compass of their own heart. Their sense of right and wrong is the only elevated value that influences their actions and conduct.
In my day, I was referred to as courageous because I endured in the face of adversity and came out in support of Communism. But they were not the things that sparked my desire to be a hero. It was the readiness to be vulnerable. My paintings revealed my deepest problems and torments, which I shared with the world. This is the next degree of courage: the ability to be transparent. Showing others your sensitive inner workings is the most terrifying type of courage, because what if they don't think my secrets are admirable? What if they make fun of my most intimate feelings? Some mocked my art, while others passed judgment.
But I was indifferent to them since they were critics who had never developed anything as adventurous, therefore they were hypocrites. No, it was the average person that I cared about and wished to reach. If the public had replied, "We cannot relate to this," I would have quit. But they stated the reverse. They replied, "I can relate to the pain I see here." That affirmation was the finest honor. I was more interested in how I made the common person feel than in what my renowned contemporary artists had to say. Did my art reach their hearts? I am now of the opinion that the greatest courage is to be vulnerable. And so, you must create something that reflects your inner landscape to such an extent that it reaches the hearts of every man.
With Love,
Frida Kahlo
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