What was it that Yoda said? Oh yes. Do or do not. There is no try.
Well, I disagree. My apologies to Yoda. He may have more wisdom of the ages than I do, but he didn’t watch today’s Paralympic sledge hockey game.
We live in Vancouver, Canada, the host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Way back in the fall, I’d purchased tickets to the gold medal round of sledge hockey, certain that Canada would be in it. Canada lost to Japan, and Japan ended up in the final with the United States. We decided to cheer for Japan. What can I say? I like an underdog. Today my daughter and I trekked over to the stadium to watch the game.
Sledge hockey is an amazing sport. Not only does it have all of the physical involvement of hockey, but players propel themselves around the ice using sticks, one of which can then be used as a hockey stick. When a player chooses to get the puck, he needs to flip his stick over and use the hockey stick end of it and propel himself with only one hand. This adds a whole other level of physical complexity to the game.
The game today was awesome. The USA was ahead at the beginning, but Japan fought back beautifully. The puck stayed around the US net for most of the game, and the Japanese players worked to get it into the net time and time again. Time and again they were stymied. The crowd cheered, and they didn’t give up.
When we left the stadium today, what stuck in my daughter’s head was not the fact that the other team won. We called her grandfather on the phone, and what she said was that the Japanese team had done a great job trying. And they had. For a team that was not supposed to make it to the gold medal round, they did a stunning job trying.
This is the kind of example that I want my preschooler to see. Not to try and fail or to try and win, but to try new things and to try really, really well. It’s the trying that matters, not the failing or the winning.
Apologies to Yoda.
(Image courtesy of stock exchange, photo by Lydian)