Which way would YOU run?

There is a new Army commercial (by the way, all military commercials annoy me because they are intrinsically deceptive) where they show a group of soldiers running INTO a clouds of smoke from an apparent explosion. The tag line at the end was 'which way would you run?' and the point was that there are certain people who run into danger to help people or to fight a battle. Those are the people that the Army is saying that it wants in its corps. Well what does that make the rest of us?

In every horror movie, there are people who hear something go bump in the night and, rather than high tail it out of there, decide to go investigate. We laugh at those people for being nosy and usually they are the first people to die in the film! Get away from danger in normally what we think people should do. I am no soldier. I am not a crime fighter. When there is a specter of danger, I run...the other way! The Army does not want me. And to be fair, I don't want the Army either. But does that make me a coward? Does that make me less of a citizen than those people willing to run head long into an ominous situation? Or does it make me smarter?

When the planes hit the towers in NYC, there was an immediate rush to help all of the wounded in the city. It felt like everyone wanted to be a 'first responder'. On that day, I stayed put in Brooklyn and I drove to a pharmacy to get medication for one of my late fraternity Brothers who had gone into sickle cell crisis. That's where I was needed but more importantly, I am not an EMT/firefighter/policeman type of person. Is that a character flaw of mine or am I just a part of a swath of society that needs to exist to complete the Venn diagram for the city? It has always been a point of internal shame for me that when my fellow Greeks were mobilizing in the following days to provide help, that I did not volunteer. It still felt dangerous to me and my instincts told me not to go. As it turns out, the air in that area was toxic and we still don't know what the final side effects are for the people who breathed it in. So was I a coward or was I smart?

Bravery, like people, comes in many forms and it is not always manifested in the physical manner. The commercial seemed to imply that those that ran into danger were braver than those who would run away from it. Even in the school yards when we were growing up, running away had its stigma. Well, here is the difference: I never run away from MY fights. On top of that, I often run to the aid of people and I never use my legs. In society, we need soldiers and fighters and rescuers.  We also need people who will defend their families and teach people and heal those that have been hurt. It takes courage to sit across from a person who has just told you that they were raped by their sibling and are now considering suicide and not run out the door! I don't think any less of those who can't do that because that's my calling. It's not a job for everyone. Just like being in the military is not for everyone either.

I write this primarily because I truly believe that there are many ways to be a good citizen (or permanent resident...don't judge me!) without taking up arms. Very hippie of me to say, I know, but if that time taught us anything, it should be that we should all respect the way each of us decide to live. Furthermore, we have to respect what we each bring to table. Some of us are braver than others but if we were all equally brave, who would be left for us to save?

These are my thoughts...what are yours?