Message to Myself

I chose to recite "In the Arena" by Theodore Roosevelt for my solo piece at Fortune Theatre. Feedback was useful, one of which was that I should read this poem more to myself. So here it is to share with all of you...

In the Arena

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,

comes up short again and again,

because there is no effort without error and shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows the 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.

-Theodore Roosevelt