This is some of the best figure skating you’ll ever see< Kamila Valieva
I’ve been thinking about courage lately and want to share two stories about aspects of courage.
The first one is about a talented fifteen-year-old Beijing Olympic figure skater, Kamilla Valieva from Russia. She broke records with her amazing figure skating. I went to YouTube to see her performance. Instead, I came across news reporters discussing how in the final competition, she’d fallen and stumbled several times, losing her chance at getting a medal. The reporter speculated she’d been thrown off by the pressure of the Olympics and by a ongoing doping investigation. After listening to the reporters, I viewed her free style skate routine and I saw something else. I saw a young woman who fell on the ice in front of the world and had the courage, fortitude and strength to get back up and skate the rest of her routine. She leaped into the air and spun around defying gravity and showed the world she was exceptional though her heart was breaking.
The next story about courage is from Top Gun, an old Tom Cruise movie I watched recently. Maverick, a cocky naval fighter pilot, wanted to win the top position at flight school. At one point in the movie, his fighter got caught in the backwash from another F-14 and he lost control of it. He and his RIO, his best friend Goose, ejected out of the fighter. Goose crashed into the canopy and was killed. Devastated by Goose’s death, Maverick considered dropping out of flight school. Instead, he found the courage to get back into the game and ended up saving another pilot when they are attacked by Russian MiGs.
We all have the go through experiences where we fail at something and want to give up. It’s not usually as dramatic as not getting a gold metal at the Olympics or crashing your F-14 fighter, but we all have the experience of metaphorically falling. We all struggle at times and have to find the courage to get back up and keep skating.
When Oprah Winfrey she was a child, she memorized the poem called Invictus by William Ernest Henley to recite in church. Invictus means unconquerable soul. She didn’t fully understand the poem, but she posted the last two lines on her bedroom wall.
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
Those lines inspired her to have a courageous life.
As a writer, I find it takes courage to step out in front of the world to share my stories, but it also makes my life more meaningful and fulfilling.
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