The Yardstick of Valour

My grandfather was a courageous man. A renowned war correspondent, he was with the Australian infantry during the fiercest fighting on the Kokoda Track, and reported from the front lines of the American-led invasion of Germany. He scaled the sheer rock faces of the Three Sisters in the Blue Mountains—in spite of his terror of heights. Or perhaps because of it. Strongly invested in the traditional notion of masculine bravery, he despised his own fear, and overcame it by forcing himself to sit with his feet dangling over the edge