I win.

Is there a prize?

I have somehow been able to live half a century without seeing a thing so obvious that you will laugh when I tell you what it is. I only just realized the common denominator in all the stories to which I am drawn.

How could a person read and discuss and continually use as metaphors

1. A Message to Garcia

2. The Old Man and the Sea

3. Don Quixote de La Mancha

without realizing that each of these literary icons is a story about relentless determination? “You can knock me down but I will stand up again. You can break me but I will heal and begin anew. Failure is a temporary condition that does not frighten me. I am prepared to die on this mountain.”

Sigh.

I finally understand what Jose Ortega y Gasset meant when he said,
“Show me what you admire and I will tell you who you are.”