Bravery in People

I'm not sure why, but this past week had me thinking about the brave and courageous things some people do in their lives beyond extraordinary circumstances. That is why I am doing this blog over a couple stories of people who have these stories.
The first is about a French man named Phillipe Croizon. Phillipe has a plan to swim around the world through small channels that connect five of the continents. To me that is brave right there, but to make the story even more brave is the fact that Croizon has no arms or legs. He lost his limbs in a powerful electrical accident that occurred when he was changing a television antenna. He believes that by swimming around the world through these channels it will bring the five continents, and their people, together. That is so amazing to me to have that kind of determination against all odds!
The next story of amazing survival is one that many of you may have already heard of. It was made into a movie about a year or so ago with the movie's title being "127 Hours." For those who do not know what story I am talking about, it is the story of Aron Ralston who found himself stuck between a rock wall and rock for days on end, and survived due to his immense amount of bravery. This incident happened back in 2003 when Ralston went on one of his normal nature day where he would ride his bike, walk the mountains, and climb them as well  in the mountains of Colorado.  As he was climbing out of a canyon an 800 pound rock slipped and fell trapping his arm between the rock and the wall of the canyon. Even though he tried everything, the rock that had trapped him would not move. After being stuck like that for about five days, Ralston knew he had no choice but to amputate his own arm if he planned on surviving. By this time he was all out of food and water considering he had only planned on being gone for a weekend. After Ralston got himself out he stumbled onto a family who helped him to be rescued. This video shows the trailer of the film that was based off of Ralston's story, while this video shows live footage Ralston filmed while he was trapped. I'm not sure how or why, but I actually remember when this story was all over the news. It immediately made me want to see the movie since it was something I had heard about in real life. I honestly do not know if I could have gone through the pain and agony of cutting my own off in order to survive. That is truly amazing and so brave to me.  
In my opinion, these two people are just a couple of the many who have to go through life at somewhat of a disadvantage compared to the rest of us. The crazy thing about that though is that they go out and do these amazing things that none of us would even consider doing. I know it has never crossed my mind to go out and swim around the world. I can barely swim a lap in a swimming pool I can't imagine going around the whole world. And Aron Ralston still enjoys being outdoors and doing these nature hikes. I know if I got my arm stuck for five days and had to cut it off I would be scared to death to go near another canyon. I just wanted to commend these two men for being so brave. Props to them for doing what they do.