Shooting from the lip

The circumstances in which he crossed it would proclaim on his life’s worth. Life’s sometimes like that. It presents moments in which we must summon everything, must stand and deliver.

At times like this, one may remember the words of the 26th president of the US, Theodore Roosevelt, writing about courage:

“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.”

One may also wish to remember the power of tenacity. In the words of US Senator Edward Kennedy: “This is the greatest lesson a child can learn.

“It is the greatest lesson anyone can learn.

“It has been the greatest lesson I have learned: if you persevere, stick with it, work at it, you have a real opportunity to achieve something.

“Sure, there will be storms along the way. And you might not reach your goal right away. But if you do your best and keep a true compass, you’ll get there.”

And one may wish to remember a binary by which our characters may live or die: “If you do not have integrity, nothing else matters.

“If you do have integrity, nothing else matters.”

In moments like this, perhaps the ultimate advice could be: “Run straight. “Run true.”