102 Minutes
I just read 102 Minutes, a journalistic account of the time from when the 1st airplane hit Tower 1 at the World Trade Center to when the tower fell. It's an excellent book, not the least because it makes vivid the stories of the people inside the towers. It's really intense, however. I recommend it to all, but be warned.
I was most impressed with the story of one particular fellow who went from floor to floor in the area just below where the plane hit in the north tower with a pry-bar dislodging debris which had trapped people. He died when the tower collapsed, but his actions saved perhaps 70 people. Stories like that make me hope I would act with the same courage if I were in a similar situation.
Do you think courage is the most manly of virtues? I suspect that all the things we associate with being manly are all qualities ordered to the virtue of courage. Maybe I'll post some more on that soon.
I was most impressed with the story of one particular fellow who went from floor to floor in the area just below where the plane hit in the north tower with a pry-bar dislodging debris which had trapped people. He died when the tower collapsed, but his actions saved perhaps 70 people. Stories like that make me hope I would act with the same courage if I were in a similar situation.
Do you think courage is the most manly of virtues? I suspect that all the things we associate with being manly are all qualities ordered to the virtue of courage. Maybe I'll post some more on that soon.
posted by Whiskey at 7:59 AM
1 Comments:
I think humility is the most manly virtue and I'll tell you why:
I'm reading the Brothers Karamazov right now and at one point in the story a father who has been wronged publically is offered a great sum of money not in reparation for the offense but in mere charity for his destitute situation. This sum of money would allow him the means to get medical treatment for his daughter and wife who are in desperate need of it. It would allow him to move his family to another town where he could find gainful employment -- which he is desperately in need of. But in the end his pride overwhelms his sense of duty. He crumples the money up and stomps on it, selling the livelihood of his family for a few seconds of machismo.
It reminds me of another scene, this one from The Magnificent Seven, when the gun-slinger, played by Charles Bronson, tells some much impressed young boys that their fathers are far more brave to submit to the yoke of farming and fatherhood than any gun-slinger.
I suppose that courage and humility are closely linked as all the virtues are.
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