Let’s start this story with a man named Matthew Robinson…
An African-American track superstar in the 1930’s.
One of his greatest moments was when he absolutely smashed the 200-meter sprint record at the Berlin Olympics in 1936.
And that was the Olympic Games that was held in Nazi Germany…a horrible place for him to be.
But, despite all that, he still gave a commanding performance and smashed a world record…and came in second.
Why?
He was running with Jesse Owens.
Jesse Owens went on to become a legend, was practically immortalized in Olympic history and had a biopic made about him.
Matthew Robinson…became a janitor at a school exclusively for white students and didn’t even get a mention in the biopic about a moment in history he was a part of.
All because he was behind by 4/10s of a second.
Now…who came in third place?
If you can answer that without a Google search, hats off to you.
I needed one to find Martinus Osendarp.
But why is that the case?
Two sprinters who made record breaking runs relegated to the background of history…because we celebrated the victor and ignored the other victors.
What they became afterwards…who cares?
Did they deserve that…who cares?
It is…a sad thing to contemplate.
Second best and third best have somehow become symbols of shame in our age.
A reason to make someone hide and cower away.
And now everyone is desperately scrambling to be first in whatever they can be.
Even if they have to be unethical about it.
Cheat, lie, falsify…those have now become the methods of the winners.
But all they provide is a veneer, a nice sheen to cover what lies underneath.
But that will soon be lost, and plain, hard facts will be all that is left.
It’s how we’ve moved from Enron and Black Monday to Fyre Fest and NAM1.
The honest, basic fact is that those who take second or third place are still very exceptional people.
They may not be the best…but the number of those better than them is very, very small.
So, before you let someone put down your second or third place accomplishment…or before you put down someone’s second or third place accomplishment, remember;
“Silver and bronze are still precious metals”
…I prefer to be quoted on that.
Zuviel's Tempest 