13/09/2024

Magnanimity

As this year’s summer holidays slip into the rear mirror, it is worth remembering that it is good consciously to develop virtues because unconsciously they shape our life. Magnanimity is as long a word as it is an attractive virtue. It is the quality of being magnanimous: of possessing a loftiness of spirit enabling you to bear trouble calmly, to disdain meanness and shun pettiness, and to display a noble generosity as you pursue your goal with a clear head and rational pride. 

Once we realise that, as the Paschal Mystery shows, God loves us unconditionally, that divine presence in our heart opens the door to magnanimity, which gradually becomes our default characteristic.

I don’t know about you, but nowadays a key element in my ancient-life’s strategy, is to seize every opportunity I can to become a better man. It’s a great help to have discovered that mistakes – and failures – are great teachers. I see the start of every hour as a birth into new life. As my emails show, I believe that though yesterdays are taken, today, is mine to take. So, I try - and  though I often fail - to keep a sense of magnanimity as I press on towards my goal: birth into divine eternity at death. I try to avoid the attitudes - as well as people - who foster pettiness.

Magnanimity is to do with moral decency and generosity of spirit. nobility. benevolence. altruism, big-heartedness, generosity. Magnanimity is altruistic, charitable, considerate, forgiving, selfless, unselfish and unstinting.

I can’t stand Russian Dolls. They lack magnanimity. They are too full of themselves!

Through magnanimity, we keep our heads held high as we march on to greatness. “In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Good Will.” wrote

 Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, RA (1874-1965) – with these lengthy post-nominals - whose sport was writing and being Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955.

In July 2017, Lewis Hamilton's heart spoke louder than his mind at the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, and sportsmanship was the winner. By handing back third place to his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas on the final lap, the Formula One title contender made a gesture that cost him a podium place and precious points, but won him plaudits. "I want to win the championship the right way and I don't know whether that will come back to bite me on the backside or not," he said. It did not. Lewis was 2017 champion – as he was in 2008, 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

“Magnanimous people have no vanity, they have no jealousy, and they feed on the true and the solid wherever they find it. And, what is more, they find it everywhere. People of small calibre are always carping. How affected so-and-so is! Don't you think he is silly? He was certainly quite mistaken about this or that. They are bent on showing their own superiority, their knowledge or their prowess or good breeding.,” stated Van Wyck Brooks (1886-1963) an American historian whose sport was writing.

In February 2012, I remember how magnanimous the 2008 champion, Maria Sharapova - a Russian - was when defeated by Victoria Azarenka - a Belarusian - in the Australian Open final. Maria admitted, “she was better on so many levels”. Given the tension between those two countries, that show of magnanimity could not have been easy.

In 2009, Michael W. Austin, of the Department of Philosophy, Eastern Kentucky University, admitted that he first developed a neo‐Aristotelian account of the virtue of magnanimity – and then applied this virtue to ethical issues that arise in sport. He argued that the magnanimous athlete will rightly use sport to foster his or her own moral development. He also addressed how the magnanimous athlete responds to the moral challenges present in sport by focusing on the issue of performance‐enhancing drugs, and concluded that athletic excellence - as it is conventionally understood - without moral excellence, has very little value.

“I was taught you never, ever disrespect your opponent or your teammates or your organization or your manager and never, ever your uniform,” admitted Ryne “Ryno” Dee Sandberg, an American former player, coach, and manager. He played in Major League Baseball for the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs for 16 years. Born 18 September 1959, in 2006, he was inducted into the Hall of fame. Respecting others  - and yourself - sets you on the road to magnanimity.

I remember reading in 2018 how former Manchester United stars Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs proved magnanimous when squatters moved into the former Manchester stock exchange that they are converting into a boutique hotel. Their response? They told the squatters they could stay over the cold winter months. They also made sure the building was safe to live in and paid for showers, toilets and hot meals.

Setting the scene - raising the bar, perhaps - in 2019, the 22 year old England and Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford campaigned – and shamed -  the government into allowing some 1.3 million children to claim free school meal vouchers in England's summer holidays during the coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to his magnanimity, he become an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list.

Baruch - also known as Benedict - De Spinoza (1632 – 1677) raised in the Portuguese-Jewish community in Amsterdam and whose sport was philosophy, made it clear that “Minds are conquered not by arms, but by love and magnanimity.”

“I do genuinely believe that young people who play sport at a competitive level, sensibly controlled, sensibly organised, that has to be a good thing. It will teach them to win, it will teach them to lose with dignity and magnanimity - all the things you want. It's a pretty good metaphor for life,” stated Sebastian “Seb” Newbold, Baron Coe, CH, KBE, Hon FRIBA (born1956), a British politician and former track and field athlete. 

As a middle-distance runner, Coe won four Olympic medals, including the 1500 metres gold medal at the Olympic Games in 1980 and 1984. He set nine outdoor and three indoor world records in middle-distance track events – including, in 1979, three world records in the space of 41 days. The world record he set in the 800 metres in 1981 remained unbroken until 1997. 

Following Coe's retirement from athletics, he was a member of parliament for the Conservative Party from 1992 to 1997 for Falmouth in Cornwall, and became a Life Peer on 16 May 2000. His magnanimity – and a host of other virtues - earned him massive international respect.

“Roger Federer Magnanimous After Defeat by Novak Djokovic in 2015 Wimbledon Final” headlined Owen Gibson. Restored to equilibrium by a post-match shower during the strange break in proceedings that followed Djokovic's victory while the roof was closed ahead of the trophy presentation, Federer was magnanimity personified in a monogrammed tracksuit. "I thought he played great. I didn't play bad myself. That's how it goes," he said. 

“The beloved of the Almighty are the rich who have the humility of the poor, and the poor who have the magnanimity of the rich” suggested Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī, (born 1210) better known by his pen name Saadi, whose sport was poetry. Magnanimity, dear reader, could convert the prose of your life to poetry. Go for it. Why not set yourself weekly – even daily – goals?