There are various ways of considering failure. Napoleon was number 42 in his class. Sir Isaac Newton was next to the lowest in his class. He failed geometry because he didn't do his problems according to the book.
A six year old came home from school one day with a note from his teacher in which it was suggested that he be taken out of school as he was too stupid to learn. His name was Thomas Edison. Later he wrote: "Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure."
Clever industrial inventions have a way of coming from aborted projects. Post-it Notes, those marvelous, ubiquitous little yellow notes from 3M with just a strip of adhesive at the top, resulted from a failure. Researchers at 3M were trying to invent a new, stronger glue. The formula flopped. But one of the researchers said, "But even so, look at that"; Post-it Notes and a financial success for 3M.
Dame Julian of Norwich, "Revelations of Divine Love": ". . . If we never failed, we should not know how feeble and wretched we are of ourself, and also we should not fully know that marvellous love of our Maker.
In a sermon, New York Presybertian minister Maurice Boyd said: "Most people can succeed at second or third rate activities, but there are people who try something that's beyond them, and they fail, but the failure itself is glorious."
Our failure need not be final. Chords that were broken can vibrate once more. We can be whole again.
