“Fearless.”
A non-scientific survey of reactions to the death of John Thompson Jr. shows that this was one of the most frequently chosen — if not THE most frequently chosen — of the myriad adjectives used to describe this man. It was also the one that I used first, because that was how I perceived him. It is a concise way to describe someone whose authoritative actions and mere presence elicited respect, awe, and reverence. (Rightfully so.)
Reading the word over & over made me start thinking about how we define fear and what it actually means to be fearless.