Retrieving the Protagonist

photo by Dennis Konijnenburg, NL

For my mom, the sincerest hero I know:

“It is not the critic who counts; Not the person who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the person 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 and shortcoming; But who does actually strive to do the deeds; Who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; Who spends him/herself in a worthy cause; Who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worse, if he/she fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his/her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

Theodore Roosevelt