Theodore Roosevelt is one of the heroes of the Art of Manliness, a site I subscribe to and regularly read, because he epitomizes what he himself called "the strenuous life." Indeed, Roosevelt valued action above all and his speech the Man in the Arena has become immortal.
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.
Edmund Morris' biography of his rise from a sickly child suffering from asthma to one of the greatest Presidents the United States ever had is truly a masterpiece of narrative and it only pushed me to emulate Roosevelt even more. Like him, I seek to be a historian. How he managed to write several books while working full time is a feat in itself. Even more, he frequently left the city to explore the great outdoors as a hunter and naturalist. I have begun climbing mountains on weekends, but there is more, much more of the world for me to see. As a politician, he reached the pinnacle by becoming the youngest President at 42. Yet he did not just reach the top, he became one of the greatest. I have always felt a calling for public service. To trace his steps and accomplish a fraction of what he did would be to live a good life.
