notes on excellence

           Today in class we learned more about the essay, A Message to Garcia.  The essay was written by Elbert Hubbard and was originally published as an inspirational essay. The essay was written in March of 1899 and soon after it went viral. People all over the country were buying a copy and it became so popular it was actually translated into 37 different languages for people all around the world. In total, over 40 million copies of the essay were sold, and it was reprinted as a pamphlet and a book. It was also made into a movie, not only once but twice in 1916 and 1936. The essay was written to give readers the message to take initiative and to not slack off. This is what lead us to the topic of the last blog when we related this message to our high school experience.
          As class went on we began to talk about the word arete and what it meant. We learned that it was a word originally used by the greeks, meaning "excellence of any kind". This is related to the message that Hubbard was trying to give while writing this essay. This also relates to the topic we discussed at the end of class today, which is knowledge. In my opinion I like the message, A message to Garcia, gives to the reader and understand why it was and still is so popular.