FRC Blog - Stop Build Day: Once More Unto the Breach

[cgmv123]

http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...nto-the-breach

You know what goes great with Stop Build Day? A little Shakespeare, specifically a little ‘Henry V’.



(A scene from Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V, released in 1989)

The scene is outside the walled town of Harfleur, in France. King Henry and his troops, from England, are attempting to take the town, and have managed to create an opening, a breach, in the walls, but have been beaten back by the defenders and have found themselves on the outside looking in. This is not where they want to be.

Henry then says to his troops, in part, this:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.

I’m no expert on Shakespeare, but I know that some consider this play as a whole to be promoting war. I personally believe it’s more nuanced than that, but even if you feel that way, try to look past that to see all that’s going on in this brief passage, and how it relates to your experience in dealing with significant challenges, like those you face in FRC.

Henry is trying to rally his troops to accomplish a difficult task. In the first few lines, he’s saying if they don’t want to charge into the breach again and finish the job, they may as well do their opponents a favor, and rebuild the wall themselves using their own fallen comrades, because all their effort to that point will have been wasted. He then goes on to suggest that different circumstances call for different attitudes. Sometimes, a reserved attitude works best. But when faced with a significant challenge, become a tiger, make your eyes look like cannons*, and set your brow to be like a cliff that overhangs a raging ocean, unperturbed regardless of what is thrown at it.

I get the sense that Henry is using this difficult challenge to stoke the engine of his troops’ courage toward the ultimate accomplishment of their objective. As Marcus Aurelius wrote, “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way”, and this seems to fit here. Marcus Aurelius is often linked to the philosophy of Stoicism, and if you have any interest in this approach, I’d recommend taking a look at The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday.

But back to FRC.

This final build day is tough, but you can choose to own it, make it yours, and use its power to drive you over the goal line.

Frank



*You’ve probably heard of the phrase to ‘look daggers’ at someone. This takes it to the next level. I haven’t been able to determine if this phrase existed in Shakespeare’s time, but I think the idea is similar.

Oh my.

[Doug Frisk]

What say you Harfleur? Do; you; yield!