"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to ensounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it."
Maya Angelou
I watched my father in the face of defeat. I watched my father in the face of success. He was a man with an unusually driving force in response to whatever he faced. He lived a large and complicated life here on earth which sadly ended in tragedy. My father believed as Scott Peck does, that life is struggle. So he treated his defeats and successes with equal fortitude, neither resting to celebrate or fall apart. He was heroic. He was a philosopher and a lover of poetry, and a captain of industry.
When I have felt defeated I think of him and wish for his dogged acceptance of life's trials. He was different from most of us and not like you would have expected given his accomplishments. My father modeled for me persistence in his tasks and a genuine empathy for his fellow man. I miss him and mourn him tonight.
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