First Public Blog Post

Blogs have been around for way too long now (it was difficult finding a name for this blog which was not used by someone else) and I've succumbed to the temptation of starting one. I am one to pen the occasional journal entry but have never, with the exception of a few travel blogs, subjected these to public scrutiny. I was in the shower and thought that blogging may provide me with a channel where I can effectively share my thoughts with anyone who's interested and at the same time, use it as a two-way passage where learning through exchanges with others (on my part, that is) can take place. I considered Twitter for a while but although I acknowledge its usefulness in sharing ideas, etc, in bite-sized posts, I know that I'm too prolix to be comfortable and effective with such a tool. Moreover, as a future educator, I feel that writing at length on a regular basis plays an important part in helping us express ourselves more coherently and confidently. There will be the inevitable tendency to write about subjects which I love: movies, history, politics, football and travelling. Accompanying these will be thoughts on aspects of everyday life, about being in the arena where we find ourselves in a constant battle to live the good life. Not many things in life bring me more than joy to discuss the aforementioned subjects with others. I hope that this blog will prove to be as helpful to others as it will be to me.

As for the title of the blog, it's origins lie in an excerpt from Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 speech which I came across reading Richard Nixon's autobiography In The Arena. It has had an indelible impact on me since and I'd like to share this short excerpt:

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.'