the arena

read this quote by theodore roosevelt, our great american president:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

absolutely brilliant.

i hope you are in the arena, and i hope i am there with you. i hope that we fail, and i hope that we succeed, and i hope that our ears are closed to the jeers of the critics, and i hope that our faces are stained with the sweat and tears of valiant effort.

and i know it is never guaranteed, and it is not even the point, but i hope that in the end, we win.