Courage

An eye surgeon, or to give him his full title ‘Consultant Opthalmic Surgeon’, talked to me recently about how impressed he was by the courage of parents who handed over their babies into his care for dangerous operations. An unimaginable situation for most of us.

 

It highlighted for me the emotional commitment underlying phrases such as “exercising due care" or “in loco parentis”.  Every day parents bring to the school gates that which they value most and deliver them into our trust. It takes courage to do this, on both sides of the fence.

 

Victoria Wood was once asked about the ‘dangers’ in doing stand up comedy.  She replied that the worst that could happen was 20 minutes of feeling a wee bit uncomfortable.  Next time we are frightened of the consequences of putting our eyes above the parapet in the pursuit of good design we should put the courage required in perspective.