Mightier Than The Sword
While I was away, I watched the Stanley Cup, and even though I was cheering for the Vancouver Canucks, the better team, Boston Bruins, won. The players on both sides played well, but the aftermath was tragic. When I saw photos and video clips of men going mad, destroying public and private property, I was reminded of that great poem If by Rudyard Kipling, where the poet writes,
“f you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;”
Obviously, there were too many who couldn’t do that.
Days later, I was heartened to see the outpouring of sentiment written on plywood sheets covering the windows of The Bay. The Memory Wall reminded me of thewall of flowers outside Buckingham Palace after Princess Diana died. Instead of flowers, the citizens of greater Vancouver used words to express their grief.
As a former therapist, I use to do anger management workshops. Grief is a form of anger. It’s sorrow, frustration, anger, and hurt all rolled up into one.
It’s too bad the outraged fans and hooligans (for lack of a better word) resorted to violence instead of usingwords to express their frustration.
I’d like to think the pen is mightier than the sword. Although a small group of rotten apples smeared a beautiful city after a wonderful hockey series, the public used the pen to point out it’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.
Interesting to note how you’ve compared life’s two most important ingredients- success Vs. failure. Indeed, pen is mightier than the sword!