What will you do?

Success is earned, Failure is given

If you could do anything and not fail, what would you do?

Now, I'm writing of the impossible - not about asking a girl on a date. Though from what I have seen and heard, this miracle would rank with those of moving mountains, walking on the moon and acing all four Humanities courses.

We know that success is not guaranteed (though failure is); even so, should this change what you do? If dreams are important to you, then the risk of failure should be an acceptable one.

In a way, this reminds me of February's SA elections.

I write of the elections with a deep understanding, for I have run for public office before.

I ran for treasurer of my 7th grade class and won (it's amazing how cheap votes are when you are in 7th grade).

The next year I ran for chaplain and lost (I ran out of blow-pops).

After that I ran cross-country and track and lost all of those races as well.

I don't look at these experiences as failures (that would be too depressing).

Instead I view them as learning experiences, growth opportunities and . . . boy, I'm starting to sound like my professors.

All I would have to say to make the spiel complete is, "Did you know that trial and opportunity are the same word in Chinese!".

Nevertheless, my experiences attempting and failing at many things has toughened me up. I believe that it has allowed me to do things that I wouldn't have attempted otherwise. I figure that if I fail often enough, eventually I will succeed (and I have).

Take this column for instance. This is not the writing of a man that is afraid to make a mistake, be made fun of or be misunderstood.

To write what I do, I must be either a brave, foolish or crazy man (and no, this is not a survey).

So what does all this have to do with success, failure, SA elections and the price of tea in Ceylon (or China for those who can't pronounce Ceylon)?

Early in the campaign week, I talked with one of the candidates in Marriott.

"I'd hate to be in politics," I joked.

To which the candidate replied that politics, indeed, was not fun, but it is what she feels God has called her to do.

"I'm not envious of your call," I told her. I don't really want to know how many people like, don't like, despise or consider me an oxygen thief.

Ambiguity, in my opinion, is a good thing.

For instance, take this column that I write (please!). I don't want to know how many people read it.

I would be metaphorically crushed if I found that no one read it. So crushed, in fact, that I would stop writing and join a religious order - or, more likely, play Command & Conquer for three days straight with breaks for food and Seinfeld.

I did not run in the SA election (I'm no masochist), but I did campaign for one of the candidates (and since my candidate did not win, my chances of spending a night in the Lincoln Bedroom are now extinct).

So did any of the candidates lose? Or did they all win!

I don't want to be some sappy sentimentalist and deny reality by saying that everyone wins, because the truth is, people lose. In life you will fail.

But if you fail often enough, you can't fail but to succeed.

In this last election two of the candidates failed. One succeeded. But I have a feeling each of these candidates will triumph.

A few months ago it hit me that I will eventually have to get a job and that all of the dreams that I have would remain just dreams unless I started to act (if my memory does not fail me, I wrote a column on this idea - that is, right after I won a Pulitzer for Best Stream of Consciousness Writing).

So I asked myself the question found at the beginning of this article.

The answer was very ambitious: I would write and produce films.

Even writing this down is a wager. That is okay, though, for if I fail while trying and striving to do my best, I will have no regrets. If I were to cowardly crawl away from the challenge, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

In a desperate attempt to make this article much more meaningful than it really is, I shall now quote the motto from Braveheart.

"Every man dies; not every man really lives."

And finally, "A coward dies a thousand deaths; a hero dies just once."

What will you do!