All Fall Down

Sunday night at the 85th Academy Awards, Jennifer Lawrence tripped on her way up to receive the Oscar for best actress.

40 million people saw the 22-year-old fall.

She fell. She got up. She continued. She received a standing ovation.

“You guys are just standing up because you feel bad I fell and that’s really embarrassing, but thank you,” she said in what was the beginning of an evening of charming and disarming statements.

The actress, who I knew was something special when I first encountered her in “Winter’s Bone,” handled her fall about as well as anyone could — with grace and good humor.

My hope is that you and I will handle our falls as well.

The question is not whether we’re going to fall. It’s how are we going to handle our falls.

We all fall. We trip. We stumble. We fall. And every time we do, we’re presented with an opportunity. 

Every fall can be a fall from or a fall into grace.

It’s up to us, dependent on our response, our openness, our perception, our attitude.

Ultimately we’ll all take the big fall, the one we can’t get up from, but until then we get to rehearse, to prepare, to practice the fine art of falling, of experiencing grace, of getting back up, of falling again, of falling better.

I’m reminded of the Dwyane Wade commercial from a few years ago — the one that shows him taking fall after fall as he drives in toward the rim and ends with these works on the screen: Fall down seven times; stand up eight.

I’m also reminded of Derek Redmond, who at the ’92 Olympics was forced to stop in the middle of his run of the 400-meter due to a snapped hamstring. When he fell to the ground in pain, stretcher-carrying medics made their way toward him, but determined to finish, Derek got back up and began to hobble in an attempt to at least cross the finish line. However, it was obvious there was no way he could finish the race. Then, out of nowhere, an older man jogs up beside Derek, hoisting his arm over his shoulder and helping the agonizing athlete. The man’s name was Jim — Jim Redmond, Derek’s father, and he had broken through security and onto the track to help his son. Derek Redmond didn’t finish first or second or third — or at all, according to the official Olympic books — but he and his father crossed the finish line and completed the race.

 It’s not just how we respond to our own falls, but the falls of others that determines our grace. Jim Redmond jumped in and saved his son. The audience at the Oscars stood and cheered on Jennifer Lawrence.

Finding grace for the falls of others might be even more of a challenge than finding it for ourselves, but finding it in our falls is a great way start — loving ourselves the first step in loving our neighbors as ourselves.

All falls aren’t physical. And they’re not all on the way to receive a life-changing award — something I can only imagine must cushion the fall and make much easier the rise.

I took a tumble this week. It was not physical. It was not on the way to receive an award. It was not graceful or anything but ugly. It was a failure of compassion and kindness in my thoughts — the place where all such things begin — and I am disappointed in myself.

Like Lawrence I lost focus for a moment, missed a step, tripped on my own ridiculous encumbrances, and I fell. Unlike Lawrence my fall wasn’t cute or endearing and I didn’t bounce right back up, but like her and Wade and the Redmonds and you, I will find the grace, I will get back up, I will fall a little better next time.
And I’ll use a 22-year-old actress who won an Academy Award for playing crazy as part of my inspiration. 

Michael Lister is a writer living in Panama City. More information on him is available at www.MichaelLister.com.