Interesting quote today

This is kind of a long story, but bear with me.

I'm usually not one for turning sports figures into heroes (in fact a person I work with and I were complaining about Salt Lake's John Stockton Blvd. just this week), but before I married a guy who didn't like football and before it was slightly painful I was a huge San Francisco 49ers fan, and as such, a fan of Steve Young. After one particularly brutal game with multiple nasty injuries, the commentators began to talk a little trash about Steve Young. At the time I was writing lots of poetry and the game got me thinking about the way in which our society sometimes looks at failure or adversity as a sign that someone isn't really worth looking up to. So I wrote this poem, and while the poem came to be about much more than some football players, it was originally inspired by that game:

The Hero

Heroes are human,
The dismal conclusion
They come to when he’s been knocked down.
He’s broken and bruised,
Tired, confused and
Picking himself off the ground.

But it isn't on victory, on pride, or on glory
That the title of hero should rest.
For it’s easy to shine when you win all the time
Triumph’s no true heroes test.

So when he climbs to his feet
When it seems he’s been beat.
Don’t say, “He should give up the fight.”
He’s got class under fire, courage, desire
And a vow to champion the right.

In spite of the pain he’ll commit once again,
Even though he has his doubts.
And he’ll give you his all
Come win, lose or fall,
Because that’s what a hero’s about.

I've been thinking about this poem a lot over the last few weeks, as Tracy and I deal with different challenges, reminding myself that hard times give you a chance to really see if your as faithful and hopeful as you claim to be.

Then today in an article about Steven Young speaking at some sort of business gathering here in Utah, they quoted him saying this, "Those of you that own businesses, those of you that have professions, in this tough time, find out if you're a pro and see how good you can be. Because I can tell you, over time, looking back on my whole career -- in business, in sports, in family -- the real, true test is I will find more about what I did in adversity than I ever did in success."