And what are MY weapons? she thought.  And the answer came to her instantly: pride.  Oh, you hear them say it’s a sin; you hear them say it goes before a fall.  And that can’t be true.  The blacksmith prides himself on a good weld; the carter is proud that his horses are well turned out, gleaming like fresh chestnuts in the sunshine; the shepherd prides himself on keeping the wolf from the flock; the cook prides herself on her cakes.  We pride ourselves on making a good history of our lives, a good story to be told.

And I also have fear–the fear that I will let others down–and because I fear, I will overcome that fear.  I will not disgrace those who have trained me.

And I have trust, even though I am not sure what it is I am trusting.

Terry Pratchett, “I Shall Wear Midnight”
(Not your ordinary ‘weapons,’ and not the ordinary things touted as strengths in novels for young people or for anyone really.  Don’t we usually want our kids to read about heroes who aren’t ‘prideful’?  Who aren’t scared or who overcome fear completely rather than embracing it as a driving force?  Who trust in some thing or person or ideal and know what that is?  But think about what real, ordinary people’s ordinary driving forces are.  Haven’t MOST people done something scary or difficult because they were afraid of letting people down?  Haven’t MOST people felt pride in a job well done and then wanted to do it again?  Haven’t MOST people felt a sort of undirected trust that ‘things will be okay’ or ‘that thing won’t happen’ or a trust in THEMSELF that they don’t recognize as such?  These plain old ordinary feelings can be important, Pratchett says, and they CAN be used as weapons against evil when understood.)