Tenets of Tae Kwon Do

It was a tough day yesterday for me in my other guise as college professor/department chair. I found out that "mistakes had been made" leading to one of our courses being omitted from the registration course list. The mistakes were mine, I found out later. This is not the first time I've screwed up in this, my first year of being department chair.

I was feeling pretty sorry for myself most of the day. When you're chair, your mistakes affect others, and you have to take the hits yourself, which I do. I'm feeling like there must be some limit to how many mistakes I make before . . . well, I don't know what will happen.

So I'm lying in bed at night, still feeling kinda bummed, and suddenly I think of Master Hughes reciting those tenets of Tae Kwon Do that we repeat back to him, call and response style. So what are they? I think I have them memorized:
Courtesy
Respect
Integrity
Perseverence
Indomitable Spirit

Those last two spoke to me yesterday. In Tae Kwon Do and in life, one needs to persevere, and not while feeling sorry for oneself, but with an indomitable spirit. Easy to say, hard to master, but I'm working on it.