Facing defeat like a man

Since Manny Pacquiao often uses religious lines as guideposts in his present life’s journey, allow me to begin with this reminder: The glory of resurrection was preceded by a slow, agonizing and, worst of all, humiliating walk on the road to Calvary. Indeed, there is no other way to get a taste of the sweet fruit of success but through the narrow, dark, rocky, and sometimes even thorny, road of life. Manny knows this very well. So do all of us. For who among us have not encountered failure in various aspects of life? Each of us has our own “chapters” of defeat.

Manny’s loss to Timothy Bradley reminds us all to remain strong. People say it was an unfair judgment. Well, in government, I mean in life, there is so much unfairness. I would feel heartaches if I list down even just some of them. But you’d never conquer the rocky road by running away from it! Filing a protest against Bradley is not a brave idea.

Well, Manny’s defeat reminds us all that:

One can never be always at the top. You cannot always be at the summit of the mountain. You need to go down.

Defeat tests our credibility. Your attitude toward defeat determines your success. I commend Manny for facing his defeat like a real man.

I hope that we, adults, can teach our children the importance of failure and the attitude to face them. So, they can see failure as the means to polish the greatness in them. Like when David saw Goliath and then said with confidence: “He’s too big, I can’t surely miss.” As the monks say it with a smile, there is no “salvation without crucifixion.”

—CARLOS ERWIN I. FAJARDO, Campus Ministry Coordinator, fajardocarloserwin @yahoo.com