What's Courage?

Wrapped up in, nice and warm towels, I paused for a moment. I looked up and made out what seemed to be snow-covered mountains, and as my view swept down, I observed the glittering lights of Burnaby, Vancouver. I sighed, seeing my breath rise up before me as I wrapped the towels even closer to my body, thinking about the options presented to me: fifty cents and a chance to become an ice cube or the safety of a nice, warm house. I sighed again, and pulled off my towels, and jumped, as the icy-cold water quickly enveloped my body. As I reemerged on the other bank, my friend's dad admiringly said, "My, what a courageous boy you are."

Almost two months later, I still shiver at the memory of my icy plunge into the river. But looking back at the event, I still sometimes wonder to myself, "Was that act courageous? Or just plain foolish? Is there even a line between the two?" Courage, some people believe, is what they call an act of foolishness after it succeeds. In basketball, a player who disobeys a coach to run his own play, which loses the game, is deemed foolish. However, if this act ultimately results in the winning points, the player is praised for being courageous. Much similarly, Martin Luther King, Jr. was bashed as a fool when he first started leading the civil rights movement in the 1900's. After the color barrier broke, however, he was recognized as a courageous leader to all of America. As examples pile up, it becomes increasingly harder to argue that the difference between foolishness and courage is success.

But if one thinks a little bit more, one can realize that success is not really that barrier between courage and stupidity. Many unsuccessful acts of heroism have been praised as courageous. In the recent Tucson shootings, a man threw himself in front of his wife to protect her from the bullets. Knowingly risking his life, he decided to protect somebody else instead of himself. In the end, he ended up dying, but many recognize this as a truly courageous act. The reason is exactly that: the reason.

Reasoning is something ingrained into all of us. Each one of us has a moral compass inside of us, no matter how deep it is burried, that tells us what's right and what's wrong. In the case of stupidity and courageousness, this little moral compass inside us is that thin little line. Your reason to perform an ordinarily foolish act can elevate that act to courageous. Whether the reason is greed, longing, unselfishness, or love, this is what seperates foolishness from courage, because only a fool what purposely harm himself/herself. But only a courageous person would harm himself/herself for another person.

Baseball Season!

I stand on the on-deck circle, stretching and swinging my bat, as my eyes focus on the pitcher. He leans back, kicks his front leg high, and fires the ball at home plate. My eyes track his every movement, as I try to find something useful. This is preparation. My teammate, who was at-bat, hit a single, so I take a deep breath and get into the batter’s box. The pitcher pulls back, and fires. “It’s low,” I tell myself: ball one. Another ball comes: ball two. This is patience. The third pitch comes, and again, I think, “It doesn’t look good.” I was wrong: strike one. I step out of the batter’s box, and when I step in again, I have a new image of the strike zone in my mind. This is adjusting. The fourth pitch comes in almost exactly where the third one did, so I swing at it… “Crack!” my bat thunders as the ball goes flying off it. This is learning from your mistakes. I drop my bat and sprint towards first base, round it, and continue towards second base. I spot the ball in the center fielder’s hands, and I sprint even harder. At the last moment, I slide into second base, a fraction of a second before the shortstop tagged me. This is grit. I stand up, and take a lead, daring the pitcher to try to pick me off. He stares at me hard for a second, and then turns around. This is a willingness to take risks. The batter strikes out a few pitches later. “There are now two people on base with one out,” I think to myself. “I don’t have to run on the next hit.” This is being alert. My teammate taps a slow ground ball to the shortstop. I slowly jog to third base, hoping the shortstop would throw there instead of home plate. The shortstop does just that, and as they chase me between second and third base, my teammate easily scores. I get tagged out, but the run scored. This is sacrifice. I smile to myself, thinking, “This is why I love baseball.” Even with such a normal game, I can learn so much, about life as well as baseball.  Through the sport, I have experienced the significance of life: sacrifice, adversity, failure, success, and much more, because baseball is more than a game: it’s life.

Sports

In the world of sports, everything is about numbers. In baseball, there's the batting average, the OPS, the pitch count, the strikes and balls, and the number of innings. In football, there's the yards left to gain until a first down, the quarter, who's on the field, and if one should kick the field goal, punt it, run it, throw it, or go for the two point conversion, all based on the score. In basketball, athletes must be careful of the time left, where they are when they shoot (three point line or inside it), and the score. The point is that with all these numbers in athletes heads, it gets confusing sometimes. But the successful athletes all know how to prioritize these numbers, and at the top of that list is the number one, as in first place. As a kid, everybody is told to compete with themselves, to do their personal best; but really, all that is is recreational; the real deal is that sports is a competition. Beyond high school competition, there's really no more competitions left that offer awards for participation. The Olympics, for example, are all about being "faster, higher, stronger". But is this a competition against oneself? On the surface, it is definitely not; it's a competition to be better against others, and to be better than others, not oneself. But really, that's not the case; there's a hidden meaning in the Olympics that not much people understand, maybe not even the athletes themselves. The Olympics- any competition, really- is a competition of guts, to get faster, get higher, and get stronger. It's a competition strictly against oneself. The other competitors? As Magic Johnson likes to say, "If you're a competitive person, that stays with you. You don't stop. You always look over your shoulder." The other people, in a competitor's eyes, are nothing but obstacles to overcome, people to help the athlete get better. Everybody performs better when the will is there, and the competition is also there, too; that's a key component. If everything is so easy, then one wouldn't perform at his/her best; their medium is good enough to win, so why try, then? It's when the heat is on, and the other competitors are right behind one, that one has to channel the inner power, and to give it one's all. I've felt this in many instances of my life before, but none as strong as this one time. Myself, I've always been a fierce competitor, and I've always wanted to be the best at everything and anything. In PE class one day, we were running the mile. That was the first time; being pretty fast and having good stamina, I easily outran the rest of the class. The next time, the person gained on me, and steadily, I began to loose my edge until the mile was becoming a neck to neck race. At first, when the competition wasn't heated, I felt like the mile was easy, with everything under control if I just jogged. But then the heat grew more and more intense, until my competitiveness almost forced me to try harder, to work faster, urging my limbs to move like they've never moved before; that's what it feels like as a competitor when the heat is on, that even though a certain objective is well out of reach, it's what one has to aim for. It's as if one's fastest, or best performance, isn't good enough. But the results will show different, as at the beginning of the year, when I hadn't been pressured to do my best, I ran the mile in almost seven minutes and thirty seconds. Now, as my competition grows, to maintain that first place, I've got to run my fastest and try my fastest, and the results have shown, as I now can run the mile in under six minutes. That's the level of competition that one needs to succeed. It's certainly a race against oneself, to be better than one's ever been before, these sporting games. It's like life, having to constantly improve oneself to maintain one's position, or even possibly go up. But this is all hidden behind the competition, who in your eyes are nothing but helpers to help pace one, and help one get on the right track. That's what the competitors see.

Happy New Years!

Happy New Years everyone! Here's a piece of advice for anyone looking to have a great 2011!

It was Casey Stengel that once said, "No baseball pitcher would be worth a darn without a catcher who couldn't handle the hot fastball." In other words, even with the best of pitchers, if the catcher can't catch the pitcher's fastball, it would be useless, and the pitcher would be as good as all the rest, if not worse. This saying refers to success in real life, too, and not just on the baseball diamond. In real life, friends are the essential "ingredient" to one's success. Almost every great invention in history was accomplished by two or more people, even if only one person got credit for it. In every single project, there's always helpers, though unimportant (as a good catcher would be catching for one of the best pitchers), but they still contribute much to the completion of the project. So there is no such thing as one-man success; all accomplishments are done by a team. Some examples of team success is the multi-million dollar company Apple, created by Steve Jobs. Though he his credited with the founding of Apple, he is not the only person responsible for the creation of this company. There are the 35,000 employees that worked as a team to bring to the world things like the Mac, iPod, iPhone, etc., and also the co-founders (Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne). So even though it may seem Steve Jobs single-handedly brought forth the iPod, there are a lot more people that worked hard to design it. Another example would be Bill Gates and Microsoft. Like Steve Jobs, he is the main contributor to the creation of the company, and also similar to Steve Jobs is that he also got help from thousands of workers from around the US, and maybe even the world. In fact, any invention- the atomic bomb, the lightbulb, the car- were invented by two or more people! That just shows one the power of teamwork. If two brains work together to do something, they'll moth likely achieve it. Just take it from Michael Jordan, widely considered the best player ever in the NBA, and listen to what he has to say about teamwork: "Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships. " Truly, the key to success in 2011, as it has always been and probably always will be, is to be a good, intelligent team player. As the old saying goes, "Two heads are always better than one."

Happy Holidays!

Have a very Merry Christmas from Vancouver, Canada!
Hope you enjoy these photos:

The Small Things in Life

The world is all about big and great things nowadays: big awards, tall skyscrapers, big countries, gigantic mansions, etc. Everything is about going big, and staying big, because in life, you got to live it big. But then, of course, are all the things that aren't big; those are the small things, and many people believe that those are the things that really matter. In fact, Mother Theresa even says, "In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." That's the only thing that one can do "greatly". Small things are the things that most people fail to notice in life, especially nowadays. Small things are those little things that go on in life, passing without notice, right before people's very eyes. People desire greatness, so they only notice greatness, but in the same instance, they don't realize what those small things do to greatness. One person that does pay attention to small details is the one and only Sherlock Holmes. With his very keen skill of noticing the small things in life, he teaches people that dreaming big is good, but it's the small details that count. It's all those small details that Sherlock Holmes seems to always notice that escapes other people's eyes that makes him so much more able to solve even the toughest crimes; that's the power of small things. In fact, another man that notices small things is Basho, a Japanese poet. The small things in life- the little flowers spurting, the small cloud in a vast blue sky, and a small fish in the rushing river- these things seem to calm him and provide him with a sense of peace. And it's in these small things, these moments, that count. In a hundred year old life, the one moment one may remember is that moment, that very small moment, where one's loved one smiles and them. It's just a small speck in a vast life, but it's the small moments that count for the most. Small moments or ideas are like the foundation for a giant skyscraper. The small moments are like the foundation, and a stable one is vital, if you don't want the skyscraper to crash. All the big moments are the bricks, and the determination and hard work is the steel supports and the cement. Without any one of them, the skyscraper would not stand. But the most the most important out of all these things is the foundation; it's the most important out of all things. Though most people, when they see the skyscraper, they appreciate the actual building, but every skyscraper has started out as a foundation, something lower than even the ground itself. Every skyscraper started out as nothing more than a whole in the ground, and the small things started filling up the area. As you can see from the example of the skyscraper, with all the small things you do, it can amount to something pretty spectacular. So in life, one has to take in all, and observe everything. Notice the small things, because it might be those things that count the most in the end.

Sports

In the world of sports, everything is about numbers. In baseball, there's the batting average, the OPS, the pitch count, the strikes and balls, and the number of innings. In football, there's the yards left to gain until a first down, the quarter, who's on the field, and if one should kick the field goal, punt it, run it, throw it, or go for the two point conversion, all based on the score. In basketball, athletes must be careful of the time left, where they are when they shoot (three point line or inside it), and the score. The point is that with all these numbers in athletes heads, it gets confusing sometimes. But the successful athletes all know how to prioritize these numbers, and at the top of that list is the number one, as in first place. As a kid, everybody is told to compete with themselves, to do their personal best; but really, all that is is recreational; the real deal is that sports is a competition. There is really no competition that offers awards for participation. Right now, the Winter Olympics are on, and the Olympics are all about being "faster, higher, stronger". But is this a competition against oneself? On the surface, it is definitely not; it's a competition to be better against others, and to be better than others, not oneself. But really, that's not the case; there's a hidden meaning in the Olympics that not much people understand, maybe not even the athletes themselves. The Olympics- any competition, really- is a competition of guts, to get faster, get higher, and get stronger. It's a competition strictly against oneself. The other competitors? As Magic Johnson likes to say, "If you're a competitive person, that stays with you. You don't stop. You always look over your shoulder." The other people, in a competitor's eyes, are nothing but obstacles to overcome, people to help the athlete get better. Everybody performs better when the will is there, and the competition is also there, too; that's a key component. If everything is so easy, then one wouldn't perform at his/her best; their medium is good enough to win, so why try, then? It's when the heat is on, and the other competitors are right behind one, that one has to channel the inner power, and to give it one's all. I've felt this in many instances of my life before, but none as strong as this one time. Me, I've always been a fierce competitor, and I've always wanted to be number one at everything and anything. In PE class one day, we were running the mile. That was the first time; being pretty fast and having good stamina, I easily outran the second place person. The next time, the person gained on me, and steadily, I began to loose my edge until the mile was becoming a neck to neck race. At first, when the competition wasn't heated, I felt like the mile was easy, with everything under control if I just jogged. But then the heat grew more and more intense, until my competitiveness almost forced me to try harder, to work faster, urging my limbs to move like they've never moved before; that's what it feels like as a competitor when the heat is on, that even though a certain objective is well out of reach, it's what one has to aim for. It's as if one's fastest, or best performance, isn't good enough. But the results will show different, as at the beginning of the year, when I hadn't been pressured to do my best, I ran the mile in almost seven minutes and thirty seconds. Now, as my competition grows, to maintain that first place, I've got to run my fastest and try my fastest, and the results have shown, as I now can run the mile in around six minutes. That's the level of competition that one needs to succeed. It's certainly a race against oneself, to be better than one's ever been before, these sporting games. It's like life, having to constantly improve oneself to maintain one's position, or even possibly go up. But this is all hidden behind the competition, who in your eyes are nothing but helpers to help pace one, and help one get on the right track. That's what the competitors see.

Written January 2010, edited December 2010