Hemingway and the Olympics (The Old man and the Sea)

For the past week I've been watching the London Olympics where exceptional athletes push their bodies and will to do remarkable things.

I discovered that I can divide the athletes that i root for into two types, the type that belongs to that "Superhuman" category of people, the demigods I call them, the likes of Fedrer, Kobe Bryant and Phelps, those who probably had never known the feeling of being in second place. It’s thrilling to watch someone who is so unlike the rest of us performing.

The second type is different. "My type", the all-too-human athletes whose every achievement is a battle. Nothing is easy. Watching them is a nerve wrecking tour. Something is always going wrong. Their struggles remind us of our struggles. And their wins are the wins that inspire us to imagine what we could be at our best.

Recently I received a blow to a personal project that I've been working on for almost two years. I succumbed myself into thinking about the futile effort and the long hours that went in vain and all the money I spent pursuing the nothingness.

I picked myself up and headed to the ever-growing pile of unread books that I have accumulated in the past 2 years and picked Hemingway's "The old man and the Sea".

The Story is of Santiago  the old fisherman whose been failing to catch a single fish for 84 consecutive days but still optimistically declares to his young apprentice that he did not break his record of 87 days yet.

The old man catches a massive marlin that  for 3 days he battles successfully to catch but only to later have his prize devoured by a school of sharks leaving him with little more than a skeleton.

Like our second type of athletes Santiago's tale is not a tale of failure, it is a tale of success in the midst of failure, of pure courage, and Santiago's refusal to give in to the challenges the world throws at him. Just note that when Santiago's grip is weakening and he can't feel his pain anymore he reminds himself that "I have never seen or heard of such a fish. But I must kill him. I am glad we do not try to kill the stars".

Santiago and the Olympics made quite an impression on me, that if you persist on pursuing something, even if others think you are unlucky as well as incapable to achieving it, at the end of the day you will achieve that very goal. It was not in vain what you did even if you end up with a skeleton of a fish.

Hemingway's favorite theme of "the highest virtue and courage lies in doing something purely for something's sake instead of for its other rewards." brought me back some sense. Even if one fails to achieve something at the end, the very process that one has ever tried and 

persisted till the last minute alone is enough to justify one's effort.

Happy 113'Th birthday Ernst Hemingway

Hashem Fouad

Cairo, 04 Aug, 2012