Get in the Game

How a gladiator reminds us how to live

Photo courtesy of Joseph Pearson

Good old Kenny Rogers was right when he sang, “You gotta know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run.”

Life sure can be messy. It can seem to be moving along swimmingly, and then whoosh, stuff happens.

Change happens.

People happen.

Circumstances happen.

In such times, you may feel inclined to hibernate, withdraw and cocoon. It seems the safer course of action - or at least you convince yourself of that.

In life, however, fear of uncomfortable feelings should never be the impetus for sitting the game out.

While there may be a time and a place to withdraw, there is also a time to engage despite the messiness and despite the uncomfortable feelings...knowing that in the end, it is just a game.

There is really nothing to win and nothing to lose.

The real point of the game is to play.

To be counted.

To be a gladiator and not a spectator.

As Theodore Roosevelt so eloquently stated:

“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.”

And so, I say to myself as I say to you,

Get in the Game.

Get. In. The. Game.