Excellence

     Today in class we learned about excellence and went deeper into A Message to Garcia. We learned more information about the time period, the story behind it, and the popularity of the story. A Message to Garcia was published in 1899, and became very popular extremely quickly. It was reprinted into a book and translated into 37 languages. It was made into a movie and the phrase "take a message to Garcia" is still used today as another way of saying take the initiative. The "message to Garcia" took place during the Spanish-American war, when Cuban wanted its independence from Spain. Rowan was the deliverer of the message and showed heroic traits. His delivering of the message was crucial to the victory. President William McKinley was president at the time, but was later assassinated. North America's largest mountain was named after him after his death, until 2015. The message of the story is to take the initiative (do the right thing without being told). Areté is the ancient Greek concept of excellence. This involves all of the abilities available to us humans. Excellence can be reached by knowledge and study. Knowledge is the highest human potential so if you have knowledge you have excellence. Areté includes moral value and living up to your fullest potential.