And now we come to a subtler insight. The value society instills into its young to make them seek out and conquer adversity must be balanced with a second value that will cause the energy put into seeking challenges to be focused so the individual can deal with those challenges efficiently. There is nothing to be gained by teaching young people blind aggression; it will only run amok in its own society and sometimes other societies. Eager, but directionless, young people end up hurting themselves in car crashes, daredevil stunts, and street fights, while accomplishing little or nothing in useful, material terms.

The courage-tempering value is usually called wisdom, but intelligence and judgment are also terms for this same value. Wisdom has the effect of directing humans to achieve objectives by behavior patterns that employ their energy efficiently. It is seen clearly in the medieval code of chivalry and the samurai warriors’ code of bushido, both of which contain instruction on how a man may be simultaneously brave and civilized.

Note that balance is implied all through my model. Balance is an ideal in all cultures, but even more so in the Far East than it is in the cultures of the West. In ancient Greece, Aristotle told his followers to seek moderation. For example, balance between foolhardiness and cowardice is what makes courage, in his view. And stinginess must be balanced with extravagancy if we are to reach a prudent way of handling money, and so on for a whole list of virtues.

In the religions of the East, like Taoism and Buddhism, the whole picture our minds make of reality as if it were made of separate, opposite traits is the illusion. For Buddha and Lao Tse, reality is an unbroken whole with no seams. Our minds think they see separate entities like good and evil, life and death, past and future, rich and poor, but in reality, there are no such things. We get free of our suffering on the day we let all our categories go and become one with everything. Then, even the most tedious forms of work can be done with dignity if they are done with mindfulness of their place in the whole of things. 

                                             

                                            

          Achilles and Chiron (wall mural in Herculaneum, Italy) (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Not surprisingly, there are echoes of this balancing of courage and wisdom embedded in mythology. These were the life-guides for early peoples. The Greek heroes Jason, Achilles, Perseus, Theseus, and Aeneas all needed Chiron, the wise, kind, moderate teacher. Among the early Britons, Arthur needed Merlin. In modern myth, Luke Skywalker needed Yoda, Dorothy, Glinda, and Katniss, Haymitch. Courage tempered with wisdom.

                                                           

       

                            

                            Thomas Carlyle (artist, J.E. Millais) (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The most familiar moral value that is a hybrid of courage and wisdom is what we call work. Diligence and conscientiousness are two of its other names, as most of us are wearily aware. But the dreary, tedious, clichéd feel of this values cluster should not discourage us. Clichés, like this one about the nobleness of work, become clichés because they express something that is universally true.

“I'm a greater believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.” (Thomas Jefferson) “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.” (Edison) 

Courage is good. Wisdom is good. We learn as children that if we want to achieve great things we have to practice both courage and wisdom, which means work hard.  

Thomas Carlyle distilled the idea well:

For there is a perennial nobleness, and even sacredness, in Work. Were he never so benighted, forgetful of his high calling, there is always hope in a man that actually and earnestly works: in Idleness alone is there perpetual despair. Work, never so Mammonish, mean, is in communication with Nature; the real desire to get Work done will itself lead one more and more to truth, to Nature’s appointments and regulations, which are truth.³