Courage is the attitude of facing and dealing with anything recognized as dangerous, difficult or painful instead of withdrawing from it. While this definition -- taken straight from the New World Dictionary of the American Language -- is simple, it is not clear.

How each of us interprets danger, difficulty or pain is subjective. My pain may seem foolish to you. Your difficulty may be easily remedied by my standards. Some interpret courage as a physical thing, others as psychological.

Few would disagree that it takes courage to join the military and even more courage to go to a distant, foreign land to engage in battle to protect the people of that foreign land. We would agree that it takes courage to come to the aid of another in a burning car or house.

These are obvious act of courage.

Would we agree, however, that it takes great courage to stand up to the crowd, to voice an opinion different than most of those around us or those in positions of authority or even to challenge our families if they support or are engaged in something we believe is wrong?

Courage is somewhat in the eye of the beholder and is determined by personal choice and conscience. That is one of the reasons courage is so valued. It is not easy to be a courageous person. There is the risk of alienation or isolation from the group and definitely a loss of support for taking a position that is different.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is a courageous woman. A few weeks ago she went against conventional wisdom, risking international criticism when agreeing to remove her small band of soldiers from Iraq in return for the safe passage of one of her countrymen who was being held by kidnappers. Her stated reason was simple, "Every life is important."

It was surely a gamble on her part and may have been politically motivated as cynics claim, but the fact of the matter is that Angelo de la Cruz, father of 8 and a truck driver working in Iraq, was released unharmed. His life was saved. He went home to his family because President Arroyo acted on her belief that every life is important. She put the cause as secondary to the life of a human being, and while this may not be prudent in every case, it is certainly something we all need to think about.

Maybe it was the fact that Arroyo is a mother and truly understands the struggle it is to bring life into the world or possibly it is her years of Catholic education that prompted her to consider negotiating for the life of de la Cruz. Listening to her explain her reasons for acting as she did was inspiring.

Few of us are heads of state. We are however, heads of families, businesses, classrooms, offices, committees, clubs and groups of friends. Yet, how many of us act courageously and therefore have a hand in changing the outcome of events?

Often we fear that our place in the community or the group will be compromised if we have the courage to act on our convictions or offer our opinion. Courageous people risk their reputations to do what is right and that might be as simple as asking your dinner group to refrain from gay bashing or racial jokes. It might be as complicated as having to change jobs because the project your engineering firm has taken on promotes a group that adheres to a questionable philosophy.

Courage means at times questioning the majority or authority because it is not always the majority or authority that is right. Courage should not be confused with impulsiveness, because true courage is the result of knowledge, prayer and trust in God. It might appear that some courageous acts are done spontaneously, but there was something that came before the spontaneous act that created a value system for the individual and enabled him or her to act.

President Arroyo offered the world a different way of doing things. It is an idealistic notion, but maybe this woman planted a seed of cooperation that will grow so the craziness of war can be slowed down.

Anne Hansen is a parent education consultant and a parishioner at Blessed Junípero Serra Church, Camarillo. Her e-mail address is familymail@aol.com.