Heavenletters

Jochen, I know just what you mean about falling flat on your face.

The metaphor of falling flat on your face applies literally and figuratively. It seems huge, almost like the worst thing that could happen.

I recently saw a movie about Franklin Delano Roosevelt who later became president of the United States during the depression and World War II. You may remember that about six years before he was elected president, he contracted polio. He felt that a man who could not walk could not have a political career.

The name of the movie was Warm Springs, and I thought it was a wonderful movie. Roosevelt certainly fell on his face -- and on his derriere -- many times in his attempts to struggle to walk, such as his walk was. How humbling!

In his first return to politics, with braces, a cane, and his son Elliot holding him up on one side, he was painfully able to walk to the microphone. According to the movie, all those great photos of Roosevelt with his head back, a big smile or even a laugh on his face, were there to cover up the pain he was in.

I couldn't help but think that the times he fell flat on his face -- these were the times that made him great.