In a few days, we’ll be celebrating the 10th anniversary of starting Rare Bird. I woke up this morning with the words of Teddy Roosevelt on my mind, which I first encountered years ago in “The Norman Shield,” the pledge training manual of Sigma Chi.
“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 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 and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, 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.”
President Theodore Roosevelt
“Citizenship in a Republic,”
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
I’m not certain if “daring greatly” is entirely fitting, but I believe that we have experienced the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and we are spending ourselves in a worthy cause. It’s been a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to the next ten!
Happy anniversary Rare Bird! I wonder what we’ll look like at 20? I know my gray hair count will likely double, if that’s even possible after the first 10.