Did you watch Jordyn Wieber crying a few nights ago as her dream of competing for Olympic gold in the woman's gymnastics all around competition slid just out of her reach? It was heart breaking. The night was going to be heartbreaking for one of three really hard working, dedicated, sweet girls. There was no one on the team that the crowd was hoping would be the loser. It's a story without a villain.
It also turns out to be a story about real life. Life is heartbreaking and sometimes there are no villains. As I watched Jordyn trying to pull herself together I thought about all the hard work and sacrifice that she and her family and coaches had put into this one meet. I thought, "Damn. There sure are no guarantees in life." For a moment I too was caught up in Jordyn's despair and wondered if it was all worth it. Why go out every day and bust your butt when you never know if it's going to pay off? I went from thinking about gymnastics to thinking about teaching in about two seconds. There is no guarantee that any of my students are going to amount to anything in life, heck, they might not even survive to adulthood in some cases. If they do grow up and are successful, there are no guarantees that they'll use their powers for good and not for evil. Why do we even bother Jordyn? We can do everything right and still have an epic fail.
I sat on my couch and stared a while longer, fortunately, because as I sat there I realized why you pour your heart and soul into whatever passion moves you. Getting up every day and going out to do the hard work is the only way to even have a shot at success. Even if that success isn't guaranteed, it is exhilarating to work hard and push for something that really matters to you. The stretching, the strengthening, the learning something new, the bends in road, are all energizing in and of themselves. A worthy effort doesn't require success to have been worth the effort; the journey itself is pretty satisfying.
And when the moment of failure comes, as it must come to everyone who makes a risky reach of any sort, the only way to survive that failure is to know that you made every effort, you did everything you could have done, and you went all out in the pursuit. It feels horrible when your story takes a heartbreaking turn. It's tempting to despair and to rail against the villains, and sometimes it seems like you won't even be able to continue. It seems possible, however, that the more epic the failure, the more likely it is that the hero has what it will take to climb back, the willingness to do it all right again the next day, just for the joy of doing it.
