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The Comfort Of Defeat Is Something We Can Seek But Not Keep
Tales from the struggle
Most of us have won and lost in different aspects of life at various points in time. It is normal to relish the pleasant taste of victory. It is normal to fear the poisoning emptiness of defeat. However, sometimes defeat offers us a much-needed break that can all too easily lead us to permanent apathy.
Winning is only a problem when we don’t know any other outcome. Only when we have always won will victory become boring and meaningless. Beauty is hard to spot without ugliness; the same goes for light and darkness. It is no wonder, then, that those who have never lost may not only take victory for granted but fail to appreciate or savour it. On a subtler note, we have undeserved triumph, which is also unlikely to satisfy anyone with principles worth having. Other than that, though, winning tends to be a welcome occurrence in our lives.
Naturally, the opposite is true for defeat. Unless we have never known victory, defeat is a nagging reminder of everything we haven’t achieved. Those who have never won at anything already live in the apathy of the eternal spectator whose mind doesn’t even conceive the possibility of participating in the race — any race. Every new thrashing dents our ego, deepens our insecurities and dampens our morale. Moreover, if our…