Test of Truth

I am always amazed at how two people can look at the same glass of water and one sees it as half full and the other as half empty...and find it fascinating that two people can read the same words on a page and comprehend two totally different messages.

With the glass of water, it is neither half full nor half empty, it simply is what it is...all depending on your perspective. The words on the page are exactly the same for both readers; how the words are interpreted depends on the lens through which they are viewed.

Like many of you, I have found that for every individual who steps out from the crowd and attempts what many view as difficult, there are plenty of individuals who will stand back and laugh when the doer stumbles, carp when they speak, and scoff when they write. Any doer has been "tested" by these critics.   

Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States had this to say about the critic in his "Man in the Arena" speech delivered April 23, 1910.

"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 and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

While researching and writing SEAL of Honor I learned from the life and wisdom of Michael Murphy that the major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become.