Excellance

           Today in class we learned about excellence. We started off by learning more about Edward Hubbard's essay, A Message to Garcia. This was written as an inspirational essay in March of 1899. It was such a popular piece of writing that it was turned into a pamphlet and sold in many places. About 40 million copies were sold, written in 37 languages. It was even made into two movies. it was made into a short film and a full length 90 minute movie.  The reason we talked about this essay in our lesson about excellence is that's mostly what his essay is about. He talks about how he feels that is needed in society.
          The essays set in the Spanish-American war. Garcia was a revolutionary seeking Cuban independence from Spain. Rowan was a West Point army officer. Lastly, McKinley was the president at the time. That means that the message that Rowan was sent to deliver was probably the most official letter he could carry. This was called a missive. A missive is a letter, especially a long or official one.
           Along with the word missive, there was other odd vocabulary in this essay that I learned about. Hubbard used the word slipshod, which I learned meant careless. He also used perihelion, which means the point when a planet (like mars) is closest to the sun and is at its brightest. Another word I learned was stenographer. This is a person who takes dictation in shorthand. The last word that was unusual that I came across was imbecility. This means incapability or stupidity.
          The Greeks had a word for excellence known as Areté. This meant excellence of an kind. moral virtue, fulfillment of purpose or function and most of all living up to full potential!