One Art

After reading the poem One Art, Elisabeth Bishop I was reminded of a quote by Ernest Hemingway that says, "You know what makes a good loser? Practice." I have found this to be true in my own life, and have heard similar stories from many others. While being a good loser isn't something that we necessarily strive to be, it is something that we all have the capability to achieve. As Bishop says, it isn't hard to master. However there are different types of loses. The more insignificant ones we do almost everyday and feel no regret are the easiest to overcome, while the loss of a friend or family member is no so easy thing. As Bishop implies in her poem, by making herself, "(Write it!)" she is forcing herself to overcome the loss of something hard. The only way that losing something so special becomes easier is losing something of equal value again. Practicing losing is no fun task, however it is a thing that as we grow older, we become better at, since by living longer, one will have more practice in losing.

This idea of becoming a better loser is something that we must fight against. As Richard Nixon says, "you must never be satisfied with losing. You must get angry, terrible angry, about losing." Fighting against losing is something that is hard for us since we want to forget about it and move on, but we must remember that we can not be complacent about losing. Once you do, the objects in which you already have lose their value.