A generation of winners

"We can never be lilies in a garden unless we have spent time as bulbs in the dark, totally alone." -Oswald Chambers

My breath was heavy as I jostled to hold my position in the midst of our sweaty mosh pit. My gaze was drawn to the multi-colored ribbons Mr. Dahn clutched tightly in his hand. My eyes sought for the royal blue sliver of silk, that I knew was mine for my victory in the 50 yd dash. I grew more frantic as I registered purples, pinks, lime greens and blacks but no royal blues or even second-place reds. What is going on here? I stared at that clump of ribbons. There were too many. Not everybody had placed high enough to get a ribbon I was sure. There were not that many ribbons last year. He called out names in alphabetical order; I watched, wide-eyed as a girl I knew first-hand had never beaten anyone at anything received her flamingo-pink ribbon, same as mine.

That was the year I learned that nobody is a loser. Everybody, no exceptions, is an equal winner.

My fifth-grade field day is etched in my mind, clear as if it were yesterday. I remember my swelling pride at the the thought of receiving my hard-earned blue ribbons and then my falling disappointment when I read the "participant" scripted on the front, identical to that of the 25 other kids in my class.

After it was decided that field day was too competitive, that some kid might get his feelings hurt because somebody else won the blue ribbon, I can't help but wonder-what's next? Are Olympians going to share the first-place, high podium with someone from every country so nobody feels left out?

What is my generation of padded playgrounds, sugar-coated criticism and "participational" field-day ribbons on the road to becoming? A bunch of sore losers who can't do a thing on their own. How can we expect a child who has lived a completely sheltered life, devoid of competition to make a successful future for himself when he has never tasted true success?

Is it even possible to achieve authentic, honest success without first utterly exhausting every resource at your command and failing? "It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure" (Joseph Campbell).

My generation will be a lost cause if we do not accept failure as part of life. If instead of padding the ground children play on, we praise the scraped knee because it symbolizes growth and adventure, to allow losers to feel disappointment and then the drive for future success. To give us the chance to learn from our mistakes instead of removing them entirely.

For the sake of my generation and those to come, let us embrace failure as a means to true success, let us rise from the ashes and soar to new heights like the great Phoenix, let us aim for the moon if we want to. After all, even if we miss, we'll land among the stars.