TheBanyanTree: Re: Open letter to teenagers

[Anita Coia]

Hello folks, just dropping in for inspiration in an amazingly spare 
moment (actually I should be shopping for storage containers or working 
on my 5000 word submission for my novel class but I've procrastinated 
this long, so...)

I agree with you entirely Julie re boredom - I find it hard to remember 
what it was like and enjoy being busy. When do we learn that?  I was 
watching the television coverage of the Ski Aerials championships here 
at Mt Buller, and heard a delightful quote used by an injured athlete to 
spur her onwards...it was voiced by your very own Theodore Roosevelt, 
who appears from his writings to have been an immensely admirable and 
progressive man.  I quote:

"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 better. 
The credit belings 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 up short again and again, because there is no effort without 
error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiams, the great 
devotions, who spends himself for 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 he fails while daring greatly, so that his 
place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither 
victory nor defeat."

My pre-teen 11-year-old stepson is tacking the emotions of trying 
different things and not quite being as good as he fantasised he was, so 
this is a timely quote. However with encouragement you can see in his 
eyes the emergence of motivation and understanding that things have to 
be earned...it's very interesting to watch and reflect on, as I've 
realised I've turned into a bit of a "back-seat driver" in my "old" age.

Julie, I'm also incredibly impressed at your attitude to and recovery 
from your accident - someone was watching over you. We have the same 
issues for cyclists in Australia - some councils are very good but it's 
the minority and the car culture promulgated in the suburbs is very 
tough (and expensive for councils) to change. Keep up the good work!

Anita
from Oz!
xxx