Milton Miller

“…social networking platforms, allow people to self-identify, to claim their own descriptions of themselves, so they can go align with global groups of their own choosing.”

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

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.

The Man in the Arena is the title of a speech given by Teddy Roosevelt at the Sorbonne in Paris, France on April 23, 1910. It was subsequently re-printed in his book Citizenship in a Republic. Here is the entire text of the speech.

Several times already I had a nice moment with someone, shared a nice dinner, had sex, or a nice tender moment, to not long after realize that person is now out of my life. In some cases the person was out of my life forever, while in others that may be for a while, but not knowing is just as bad as knowing for sure.

From time to time I promise myself to treat people as if that is the last time I will see them. Because sometimes that is the reality.

This video carries that message very well:

While listening to the lyrics of a song “Live like you were dying”, the following interview with a hockey player from the past, came back to me. The player was being interviewed after he recovered from an injury that cost him his left eye. The reporter asked if he realized what had happened at the moment it happened and what was he thinking at the time. The player told the reporter:

I was on a breakaway, I felt the opponent’s stick bounce up and it caught me under my left arm and the tip got me in my left eye. From the pain, the force, the blood… I knew I would lose the eye. In a split second I realized, this was my last shift and I would never play hockey again. I could fall to the ice, draw a penalty, and get escorted off the ice to the clinic, never to return…. or… I could score a goal, and skate off the ice with my stick in the air, hands over my head, and still never play hockey again. I wanted to end my career on a goal. Even though everything was blurry, I turned on the afterburners, skated as hard as I could, gave the goalie the best move I could and blasted a rocket into the net. My career was cut short, but I skated off the ice satisfied, with my hands in the air, a victor.

The reporter than asked if he had any regrets, and the player then answered in this (imho, amazingly insightful) sentence:

My only regret was that I did not play every shift, of every game, when I had two eyes, like I did during those few seconds when I played with only one eye.

Imagine what it would be like to kiss your spouse, every time, like this was going to be the last kiss. To make love, like this was going to be the last time you get to make love. To take out the garbage, like this was the last time they would ever ask you to do it. What kindness would you show your spouse, your children, your friends, your business associates, if this was your last chance to show them kindness.

What is your opinion about “living life as if you were dying” ?