cytaty z książki "Open: An Autobiography"
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Przypominam sobie, jak wąski jest margines błędu na korcie tenisowym, jak niewielka przestrzeń dzieli wielkość od przeciętności, sławę od anonimowości, szczęście od rozpaczy.
Myślę, że ludzie nie rozumieją bólu porażki w finale. Człowiek trenuje, podróżuje i cały czas stara się być gotów na wszystko. Wygrywa w jednym tygodniu cztery mecze z rzędu (...). A potem przegrywa finał i o nie jego nazwisko odczytują przy wręczaniu nagrody, to nie jego nazwisko zostaje zapisane w annałach tenisa. Okazuje się słabszy tylko raz, ale i tak jest przegranym.
Take it one point at a time. Make him work for everything. No matter what happens, hold your head up. And for God’s sake enjoy it, or at least try to enjoy moments of it, even the pain, even the losing, if that’s what’s in store.
And yet. Our best intentions are often thwarted by external forces—forces that we ourselves set in motion long ago. Decisions, especially bad ones, create their own kind of momentum, and momentum can be a bitch to stop, as every athlete knows. Even when we vow to change, even when we sorrow and atone for our mistakes, the momentum of our past keeps carrying us down the wrong road. Momentum rules the world. Momentum says: Hold on, not so fast, I’m still running things here. As a friend likes to say, quoting an old Greek poem: The minds of the everlasting gods are not changed suddenly.
Do I contradict myself? Very well, then, I contradict myself. I never knew this was an acceptable point of view. Now I steer by it. Now it’s my North Star. And that’s what I’ll tell the students. Life is a tennis match between polar opposites. Winning and losing, love and hate, open and closed. It helps to recognize that painful fact early. Then recognize the polar opposites within yourself, and if you can’t embrace them, or reconcile them, at least accept them and move on. The only thing you cannot do is ignore them.