I had good care going. I had Meredith and the family. And I didn't want to become the object of some kind of pity, most of all. I didn't want to show up on the Internet, 'Tom Brokaw has cancer.'
Interpretation
The speaker emphasizes the importance of resilience and dignity in facing personal challenges without seeking pity.
In this quote, Tom Brokaw expresses his determination to cope with his cancer diagnosis while maintaining his dignity and focusing on the support from loved ones. He underscores the desire to remain strong and private about his struggles, illustrating a common human inclination to avoid becoming a subject of pity, especially in a public sphere dominated by media narratives. This reflects broader themes of courage in the face of adversity and the importance of privacy in personal battles.
In practice
During a motivational speech about handling difficult times.
The WWII generation shares so many common values: duty, honor, country, personal responsibility and the marriage vow " For better or for worse--it was the last generation in which, broadly speaking, marriage was a commitment and divorce was not an option
Your grandparents came of age in the Great Depression, when everyday life was about deprivation and sacrifice, when the economic conditions of the time were so grave and so unrelenting it would have been easy enough for the American dream to fade away.
While Pickstown may not be what it once was, it still is framed by the natural beauty of the ancient river, the sweep of the Great Plains, and the long, unbroken shoreline of the lake behind the dam. It gave me a 19th-century childhood in a modern mid-20th-century town, and for that I will always be grateful.
I am simply the most conspicuous part of a large, thoroughly dedicated and professional staff that extends from just behind these cameras, across this country and around the world, in too many instances, in places of grave danger and personal hardship. They're family to me.
Heroes are people who rise to the occasion and slip quietly away.
It is, I believe, the greatest generation any society has ever produced.
I've seen many men die right in front of me - so many in fact that I've become almost hardened to it. Having seen the worst that human beings can do to each other, the results of torture, mutilation and seeing someone blown to pieces by a bomb, you develop a kind of shell. But you had to. You had to. Otherwise, we would never have won.
There's an antidote to our fears- trust. If we trust God more,we can fear less.
It is a mistake to look at someone who is self assertive and say, "It's easy for her, she has good self-esteem." One of the ways you build self-esteem is by being self-assertive when it is not easy to do so. There are always times when self-assertiven ess requires courage, no matter how high your self-esteem.
There is no need to give in to the compromise that totalitarian regimes always count on.
I'm simply not afraid. It's not in my dictionary of behaviour.
Martyrdom does not end something, it only a beginning.
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