温馨夜读II PART3 11.What Courage Looks Like?

[00:00.30]11.What Courage Looks Like?

[00:04.44]I know what courage looks like. I saw it on a flight I took six years ago.

[00:09.11]Minutes after we were airborne, our plane began dipping wildly and one wing lunged downward.

[00:15.97]The pilot soon made a grave announcement.

[00:19.46]“We are having some difficulties,” he said, “we are not sure our landing gear will lock, so the flight attendants will prepare you for a bumpy 1 landing.”

[00:29.37]In other words, we were about to crash.

[00:33.18]As I looked at the faces of my fellow travelers, I was stunned 2 by the changes I saw in their faces.

[00:39.71]Everyone lost composure in one way or another.

[00:43.31]I began searching the crowd for one person who felt the peace and calm that true courage or great faith gives people in these events.

[00:52.02]I saw no one. Then a couple of rows to my left, I heard a still calm voice, a woman’s voice, speaking in an absolutely normal conversational 3 tone.

[01:07.04]There was no tremor 4 or tension. I had to find the source of this voice.

[01:13.80]All around, people cried and finally I saw her.

[01:18.15]In the midst of all the chaos 5, a mother was talking to her child.

[01:22.95]The woman was staring full into the face of her daughter, who looked to be four years old.

[01:28.18]The child listened closely.

[01:30.57]The mother’s gaze held the child so fixed 6 and intent that she seemed untouched by the sounds of grief and fear around her.

[01:38.95]A picture flashed into my mind of another little girl who had recently survived a terrible plane crash.

[01:46.25]Speculation had it that she had lived because her mother had strapped 7 her own body over the little girl’s in order to protect her.

[01:54.31]I strained to hear what this mother was telling her child.

[01:58.88]Over and over again, the mother said, “I love you so much. Do you know for sure that I love you more than anything?”

[02:08.14]“Yes, Mommy,” the little girl said.

[02:10.85]“And remember, no matter what happens, that I love you always.”

[02:16.08]Then the mother put her body over her daughter’s, strapped the seat belt over both of them and prepared to crash.

[02:23.39]For no earthly reason, our landing gear held and our touchdown was not the tragedy it seemed destined 8 to be.

[02:31.90]The voice I heard that day maintained an evenness that seemed emotionally and physically 9 impossible.

[02:37.15]Only the greatest courage, surrounded by even greater love, could have lifted her above the chaos around her.

[02:44.81]That mom showed me what a real hero looks like.

[02:48.63]And for those few minutes, I heard the voice of courage.