"In the Arena"

Tomorrow marks the 16th anniversary of September 11, 2001 - a day that changed all of our lives, some more than others.  I don't remember a lot of things that happened to me 16 years ago, but I can remember exactly where I was, what I was doing, and who I was with the moment that I heard that an airplane had crashed into one of the two towers at the World Trade Center in New York (see last year's blog post, "Leadership during a crisis - remember 9.11.01").  I remember the anger (and the fear) that I felt the moment that I learned that a second airplane had crashed into the other tower, at which point I knew (we all did) that this was not an accident.  I can remember the conversation that I had with my wife about how we would talk to our kids about what had happened and how our lives were never going to be quite the same.  I also remember what an amazing job Mayor Rudolph Giuliani and President George W. Bush did leading our nation in one of the most significant events that had occurred in all of our lifetimes.  September 11th was a defining moment in history.  And it is at those kinds of defining moments that some of our greatest leaders have shown their mettle.

I am reminded of a great speech - some would say his greatest speech - that former President Theodore Roosevelt delivered on April 23, 1910 called "Citizenship in a Republic" but more widely known as the "Man in the Arena" speech.  The most famous passage in the speech goes as follows:

"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."

Roosevelt's "Man in the Arena"" passage (which I prefer to call his "In the Arena" passage, as there are great men and women who are in the arena) has served as a source of inspiration to many.  President Richard Nixon used the quote in his resignation speech, Nelson Mandela gave a copy of the quote to Francois Pienaar, Captain of the South African National Rugby Team in the 1995 Rugby World Cup (as told in the movie, Invictus), and baseball player Mark DeRosa read the quote aloud to his teammates before Game 4 of the 2012 National League Division Series between the Washington Nationals and the St. Louis Cardinals.  And if that isn't enough, apparently Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth tattooed the quote on their arms!

The quote is certainly inspirational.  At some point in our lives, all of us will be "In the Arena."  The question is, how will we respond?