Going The Distance
If you’ve ever seen the movie, “Rocky,” you know that Rocky was a loser. Yup, I said it. Rocky lost the big fight to Apollo Creed. At the end of 15 rounds, Creed got his hand raised, and Rocky walked away a loser.
What’s that you say? You say Rocky wasn’t a loser?
I actually agree. I’ve been pulling your leg a bit, just to get your attention. What I want you to think about is how we define “winning.” I want you to think about it not just how it applies to “The Italian Stallion,” but also how it applies to our current situation with President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and the 2A benefits contained (or not) within.
But let’s jump back to the movie for a second. In it, there is a scene where Rocky, unable to sleep the night before the fight, gets out of bed and goes for a walk. He finds himself in the empty arena, and speaks briefly to the fight promoter, who says that he is confident that Rocky will give them, “a good show.”
He knows he can’t “win.” But he finds victory just the same. Can we?
A somber Rocky returns to his apartment and confesses to Adrian that he knows he cannot win, that he cannot defeat Apollo Creed. But he has no plans to back out, and instead says that to him, he will consider it a win if he can simply go the distance…the full 15 rounds…with the champ.
I would add that I once saw Sylvester Stallone talk about this scene in an interview, and he said that because of budget limitations, the producers wanted to cut that scene. But Stallone was adamant that it stay in, insisting that it was essential for establishing the proper perspective for the final fight scene.
Do you get it? Had we gone into the final scene holding onto hope that Rocky would win the fight, we wouldn’t have the same feeling about Rocky at the end.
We need to maintain the same perspective with this bill, and with the fight to restore the 2nd Amendment in general. It’s not that Rocky held anything back in the fight, and it’s not that he wouldn’t have been elated with total victory. But there’s no denying that by staying in the ring, and managing his expectations, he came away bloody, but by no means a loser. He managed to get something positive out of that fight, and we should adopt the same mindset. Keep fighting, and get something out of it.
It’s a long fight, and like Rocky, we have to be prepared to go the distance, and take our wins where we can.
