Certainly courage is personified in the iconic photo of the lone protester in Tiananmen Square, facing the tanks. Our own history is full of examples of public courage, from the marchers standing firm against the fire hoses and German Shepherds during the civil rights movement to the first responders running toward the World Trade Center while everyone else was running away.

Courage is also a private matter and no less important because of that. All around us acts of courage are played out every day without being noticed. Sometimes the person involved does not even realize the depths of courage needed to do what has to be done.

I have known children for whom getting on the school bus at the end of the day, knowing what they were riding towards, was an act of courage.

And those kids did it over and over, day after day.