The Feeling of Power
In this connection it is highly significant that in times of strong excitement there is not infrequent testimony to a sense of overwhelming power that sweeps in like a sudden tide and lifts the person to a new high level of ability. A friend of mine, whose nature is somewhat choleric, has told me that when he is seized with anger, he is also possessed by an intense conviction that he could crush and utterly destroy the object of his hostility. And I have heard a football player confess that just before the final game such an access of strength seemed to come to him that he felt able, on the signal, to crouch and with a jump go crashing through any ordinary door. There is intense satisfaction in these moments of supreme elation, when the body is at its acme of accomplishment. And it is altogether probable that the critical dangers of adventure have a fascination because fear is thrilling, and extrication from a predicament, by calling forth all the bodily resources and setting them to meet the challenge of the difficulty, yields many of the joys of conquest. For these reasons vigorous men go forth to seek dangers and to run large chances of serious injury. “Danger makes us more alive. We so love to strive that we come to love the fear that gives us strength for conflict. Fear is not only something to be escaped from to a place or state of safety, but welcomed as an arsenal of augmented strength.”[13] And thus in the hazardous sports, in mountain climbing, in the hunting of big game, and in the tremendous adventure of war, risks and excitement and the sense of power surge up together, setting free unsuspected energies, and bringing vividly to consciousness memorable fresh revelations of the possibilities of achievement.