‘Cause we all fall

Hello All,

I am in love with the wisdom of an adorable 4-year old child. If you have not seen the TikTok, Instagram or YouTube of the cutie snowboarding in her dinosaur costume, then I highly recommend you Google it. (If I could remember how the King of the Blog told me to include a link, I would have done it! Ahhh, the joys of being a Boomer!) Robert Garlow of Yakima, Washington, shared the adventures of his daughter Aubrin Sage. Aubrin Sage has been snowboarding since she was 18 months old. He knew she talked/sung to herself when snowboarding, so he added a microphone so he could record her commentary during a wintery run, to “get a glimpse of her thought processes.” When asked what kind of dinosaur she is, her quick response was a “powder-saurus”. She proceeds to sing down the hill saying “I won’t fall. Maybe I will. That’s okay, ‘Cause we all fall.” She falls several times in the soft powder and gets back up. When she falls the last time, she notes that she is a “stuck-asaurus”.

Out of the mouth of a babe – “That’s okay. ‘Cause we all fall.”

Maybe this struck a chord with me because I have been watching the Olympics. The Olympics showcase the world’s best athletes – truly showing the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat”. This time though, I also thought it showed the dark side of the sports in ways that, perhaps, I had paid attention to before.

The athletes are under tremendous pressure, some self-imposed no doubt, but much heaped on them by governments, coaches, spectators, journalists – the quest for perfection and gold. We closely watch medal counts; we call out imperfections; we show past defeats and victories, always comparing.

I wonder what it would be like for each of us if the recordings of our worst days/experiences were broadcast over and over again for the world to see – and I know each of us has experienced “worst days”. How would we feel if we were 15-years old and “let down” our whole country? What happens if we were human and we fell down the icy slope? I can hardly fathom the pressure.

The truth is we are all human – and we all fall.

What if instead we celebrated the fact that these amazing athletes are among a select group that has been recognized in each country – and that they all show up to do their best? What if we cheered for improvement? What if we shared broadly the incredible acts of sportsmanship? (That are often hidden.) What if we shared the tremendous joy of the sport? What if we triumphed in the sheer tenacity of these athletes that fell and got back up to do it all over again?

Confucius was reported to say, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

Let’s remember we all fall. And then let’s rise.

Phyl