The Arena

 
"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy course; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat." – THEODORE ROOSEVELT (Paris Sorbonne, 1910)

Teddy had a lot of great quotes but none truer than the aforementioned. To be truly alive one must live with passion and goals even if it means failure is just around the corner. We must let the world see us with all our warts and medals otherwise we live a lonely life of should haves, would haves and could haves.

Despite family genetics, diets or your latest fortune telling, death is never more then one heartbeat away. The next time you question your own mortality please buy a newspaper and turn to the obituaries. People die every day and there are no rules for not waking up one day. They die at 10 years, 25 years, 40 years or 100 years. One day they have a plan the next day they are on a trip, which exceeds their highest previous destination north (or in some cases farthest destination south). You can argue balls and strikes, income taxes and pass interference but you can’t argue death. Once you’re dead you're dead. Fade to black.

 We need a reason to wake up in the morning and say, “Thank God I am still here” as opposed to hitting the snooze button and spending 9 more minutes unconscious. Life is not about making it through the day so you can make it through another day tomorrow. Living is not just about having a heartbeat it is about the pounding of your heart before a first date or about butterflies on the first day of a new job or about a cold sweat as you wait to get the results of your College Board exams. It is about dreams, goals, smiles, winning and yes, even losing. We must live for the pleasure of today and the promise of tommorrow, otherwise what is the point of awaking each morning.

Unfortunately in today’s society many of us have become spectators and content to watch others fail and succeed. We may laugh at the failures and become jealous of the successes because it seems that great things happen to others instead of us. Why is that? Because the successful people chose to enter the arena and risk failing so they may taste success while others are content to just buy a ticket and sit at the arena.

Successful athletes appear to live a life of fame and riches but the glory came with a price. Hours of training, practice, errors, mistakes while being booed by those sitting at the arena. But the successful athlete kept working harder and harder until the mistakes got less and the boos turned to cheers. They had goals and dreams and instead of watching The Simpson’s they were running an extra mile or shooting 100 free throws. The same is true of successful actors, politicians, businessmen etc. They were willing to chase a dream and stay a course even if it meant sleepless nights, countless rejections and attacks from those sitting at the arena.

Goals come in all shapes and sizes, as does passion. We may want to lose 10 pounds, attend every little league game our children play in or have a new school built for the community. To achieve the goals we must be passionate in our efforts to reach them. Goals have a price whether it is eating yogurt instead of ice cream, working on Saturday so you can leave work early Tuesday or spending a weekend collecting signatures instead of sunning yourself at the beach.

We also must learn that we live in a world where sometime achieving our goals means someone else may not achieve theirs. It is easy for the spectator to criticize the politician who they disagree with. But one must remember the politician is putting in effort to achieve their goals while the spectator does no more that watch and point out the mistakes the politician makes. The same goes for the ball player who is in a 0 for 25 slump but trying his heart out while a spectator boos his every swing. Finding fault is easy, finding a better way is work but it can be rewarding, fulfilling and put an extra bounce in your step.

So next time you want to poke fun at the overweight jogger slowly plodding down the street, look at you own gut. Instead of laughing at the jogger  give him  a thumbs up or even better go home and throw on the shorts and take a run yourself (depending on the size of your gut you may want to walk instead). Watching the world go by is easy but being part of the action is a lot more enjoyable and the reason for being here. Remember that we can leave this world at any time for any reason so let’s truly live while we are here.