Never Surrender
Article by Carter Cada- Written 7/14/2023
It weighed heavily upon his mind.
Once more, he tried to push the negativity from his thoughts. Swirling a glass in his hand, he studied its contents before taking a long drink. Even this, his greatest indulgence, could not erase the strain that the past few years of hardship had left on his mind.
He smiled dryly to himself. Since when had his life been anything but struggle? After completing his education, he had been thrust head-first into the greatest conflict his nation had known. And then again, and then again. His smile took on a little more life. He knew, deep inside, that where others faltered, he flourished. Conflict might destroy a lesser man, but as for him? It was where he thrived.
“Prime minister?” came a timid voice at the door. His smile disappeared, happy memories now fading as the ever-dark present edged in once more upon his thoughts. He sighed, replacing his glass in its spot upon his desk. “Come in” he replied curtly.
A young secretary stepped tenderly into his office, closing the door behind her. “The latest reports, sir.” Gingerly, she placed a sheaf of papers on the desk. Bringing himself upright, he took up the papers to inspect them closer. As he read, his eyebrows furrowed. After another line or two, he cast the papers back onto the desk, scattering them as he did so.
“How many lost today?” He asked the secretary while rubbing his face in distress. “Well…” she began, consternation giving her pause. “How many?” He demanded more sternly. She hung her head glumly. “Fifteen today, sir.” Fifteen. Fifteen of their finest airmen, gone. Fifteen of the ever-narrowing line between life and death, now swept into oblivion.
He was sent into a whirlwind of emotion. His head swam with disbelief. They couldn’t afford to lose one or two, let alone fifteen. Anger displaced his disbelief, as his hatred toward the enemy and what they had done to his people began to surface. Anger was followed by sorrow, as the countless happy, innocent lives that had been lost to the conflict crossed his mind.
As these thoughts swirled around and around, a debilitating fear began to creep over his mind. What if this battle could not be won? What if it was already over? His chest began to feel tight, and his neck stiffened as the fear crept closer to his heart. “There is no one for you to hope in, other than providence” he thought to himself. “Just you…alone…the lives of all your countrymen depend solely on you.”
The thought almost overwhelmed him entirely. Just then, as fear tightened its grip on him, there arose a spark of resolve, from deep within. The spark kindled a flame, which filled him with a roaring passion. No one he could go to for help? Fine. He would be the help that others needed.
As his resolve replaced reluctance, his face shone with determination, set as hard as stone. A sort of fire burned in his eyes, telling all who saw them that this was a man not easily bested. He hadn’t been, and, as he now resolved, wouldn’t be yet.
“Lizzie” He addressed his secretary, a newfound strength in his voice. “Fetch me my overcoat.” She looked at him in confusion as, gripping his cane, he hefted himself to his feet. “Sir?” she questioned him. “I am going to speak to the people…Let’s see if we can’t stoke their resolve, hmm?”
As he made his way out of his office, he looked out a window. The skies were a bleak gray. Seems like they had been for too long. As he hurried on, Elizabeth in close pursuit, a single ray of sunlight seemed to break through the clouds. Already, the words were formulating in his mind.
How was he to strengthen his people? His war-sick, weary, and worried countrymen? By telling them to fight, of course. To fight, and to never give up. For it is not success or failure that matter, you see; it is the courage to continue that counts. “We shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall never surrender.” He thought to himself. “That is how I will inspire them. To fight, and never give in”.
He smiled to himself as he hurried onward. He was proud that he, Winston Churchill, would play a part in shaping the future of the whole world..
Despite several calamities in both his public and private life, Winston Churchill refused to be defeated.
Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill. It isn’t a name you hear very often today. He didn’t set any record for most yards in a pass, most points in an inning, fastest speedrunner of a game, or invention of a great contraption.
You hear the name once, maybe twice towards the end of world history class, and forget about it after that. But why is it that we remember him at all? What did he do that was so significant? Sure, he led a country during wartime, but so have many others.
Why Winston Churchill?
Let me start somewhere a little more personal.
Confidence has never come naturally to me. For as far back as I can remember, I’ve always felt like I needed a lot of validation for any ideas I had. After getting shot down again and again, eventually, I had kind of given up trying to be innovative.
Now, to be fair, a great many of my ideas were pretty bad (honorable mention goes to a terrible cross-over fanfic I tried to write as a thirteen year old), so I can’t blame others too much.
That notwithstanding, I had kind of given up trying to forge my own path. Plenty of others had advice and direction for me, and I just kind of went with the flow.
Fast forward several years. I was just starting my sophomore year of college, and lacked any kind of motivation or direction in life. Relatable for anyone else in their twenties?
I was just trying to make every day work, and hoping that somehow, something would happen that could turn things around for me.
I was about at the end of my rope; my sophomore year was one of the most mentally difficult of my life.
A few weeks into school, I was sent an Amazon gift card from my parents. I was ecstatic.
Up to this point, I’d felt lucky if I had enough money to buy a few snacks to supplement the slop that the school served us.
…Erm, tasty slop (just in case anyone from my old school reads these; please don’t ret-con my grades).
The best part about the card? It wasn’t for Walmart or Kroeger, so I didn’t feel obligated to use it for groceries or school supplies. I could get whatever I wanted.
It was an easy choice for me; books, of course. I hadn’t gotten a new one in a long time, and this early in the schoolyear, I would have ample opportunity to read them.
I had a lot of fun looking for a book to purchase and ended up with a tie between two: “Churchill: a life in words” and “Aristotle’s art of rhetoric”. Thrilling reads, I know.
I ended up making the hard call of splurging a little bit of the precious spending money I had so that I could get both and waited excitedly for the week or so it would take for them to arrive.
It was well worth the wait and the extra few dollars. When the books came, I read with a fervor, hungry for something I had inadvertently deprived myself of for so long.
When I purchased the biography on Churchill, it was for no particular reason. I just hadn’t ever read one on him and figured I ought to do so.
I didn’t realize then that I was about to strike a chord with someone who was going to instill a spark of resolve in my live and be the only person to pen a quote that I read every single day.
Who was Winston Churchill?
November 30th, 1874, a child was born kicking and fighting into the world, and was to continue fighting the rest of his life. As Winston grew, a fascination with the military and armed forces grew with him.
After graduation, he joined the Boer war effort as a military journalist, keeping those back home up-to-date on the proceedings. During the war Winston was captured by enemy forces.
Being able to escape, he fled multiple days on foot to return to friendly territory. Upon arrival at home, he would go on to publish the story.
After the end of the war, Winston was encouraged to get involved in the political sphere of the country; and it was this - this new kind of war - that would propel him to fame.
In 1900, Winston took his first political office as a parliamentary representative for Oldham. Eventually, he was to rise to the office of Prime minister, a position he filled twice: once from 1940 to 1945 during WWII, and again from 1951 to 1955.
Why is Winston Churchill Important?
Churchill by no means lived an easy life. Quite the opposite, in fact. But in spite of all difficulty, and in the face of the impossible, he never gave up.
“Failure is not fatal, success is not final; it is the courage to continue that counts.”
Imagine this scenario. Just a mere few years ago, your world, country, and home had been ravaged by the greatest terror the world had ever known.
Many, many young men you knew were snuffed out of existence entirely. Soldiers that could be identified after death were the lucky ones.
For a few years, now, you’ve had peace. Tentative peace, but still peace. That peace, it would seem, however, is slipping away.
You’ve heard dark reports of a madman in Germany, how he has demanded that portions of other countries be turned over to him, and how this demand was met.
News comes again: war.
You wait anxiously to begin hearing the reports trickle in from the mainland of troop movements and fronts. No such reports come.
Where war could take months for even the smallest advances to take place, entire countries are being engulfed in hours.
Hours.
Terror sets into your heart. These aren’t pushover colonies or territories; these are the strongest fighting forces in the world.
Next, the war sweeps over to France. In a moment of respite, you feel some relief. You have heard of the world class defenses the French have erected in order to prevent the horrors of war from ever occurring again.
A new and twisted dread fills your heart with new reports: France didn’t even stand a chance. You hear stories of citizens being gunned down in the streets as they try to evacuate the city.
Now, who might the war turn its eyes on next? You shudder. Once upon a time, your homeland was barely able to stave off these intruders. This time, though, they are much, much more powerful than before. It will only be by divine intervention that you can pull through.
Then comes a new report: the Prime minister has abdicated. Your country is without its leader.
It’s not pretty, is it? Yet, this was the reality Winston Churchill had to take control of. No one to help, no one to depend on. Everything was on him.
So many of us would crack under the pressure. I can’t imagine being thrust into such a situation. What was the key to his success?
Never Give Up
His whole life, Churchill had one core belief: that success wasn’t based on wealth, education, talent, ability, intelligence, humor, or charisma.
Success comes by determination. Determination to never surrender.
It was a message he proved time and time again, all throughout his life.
There was ample opportunity for Churchill to give up: the death of his infant daughter, the public hatred against him for the debacle at Gallipoli, being taken hostage in South Africa, and, of course, taking charge of his country in their “darkest hour”.
Through all of these things, not once did Winston Churchill ever give up; and for that, the world is grateful.
Closing Thoughts:
When I started writing, when I started this blog, there was nothing inside of me that made me feel like I could.
After reading about the life of Churchill, I realized something:
Confidence and bravery aren’t something you have: it’s a choice that you make.
Like I said in the beginning, I’ve never been a confident person. Winston Churchill taught me something: that it didn’t matter. I didn’t need confidence.
I had it already.
The power to choose.
About the author
Carter John Cada is the founder of and main author for Quips from the Quiver. In his free time, he loves to read, spend time with his 10 siblings, read, work out, read, work on his manuscript, read, and read.
He also enjoys eating.
