Missing the Message to Garcia

How do two people experience the same thing and get totally different impressions? I just finished watching a piece on WNED about the life and movement of Roycroft founder Elbert Hubbard. They had a slew of historians serving as commentators. One particular lady was commenting on Hubbard's unexpected breakthrough publication, A Message to Garcia. Hubbard published it in his paper, The Philistine, on a whim after a out-and-out conversation over dinner with his son over what was at the time considered The Cuban War. People started requesting reprints and he eventually printed more than 40 million copies in 36 different languages. It's third for its time only overshadowed by The Bible and the dictionary.

General Garcia was a officer in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. The story goes that the president of the United States asked a soldier to deliver a message to General Garcia who was somewhere in the mountains of Cuba at an unknown location. Hubbard's insight was about the fact the soldier just got it done. He didn't ask questions. He didn't make excuses for why he'll "try but it might not happen because it's tough to find someone in a wild country when you don't know where they are." He just did and it meant a great deal. Just do the work, you know?

Back to this lady's commentary. She was going on about how while Hubbard was a champion for breaking rules and making your way he contradicted himself by insisting that what our country needed was more people willing to just follow the rules and do the work. Did she read the same essay that I did? I've read A Message to Garcia and that is not the point. It's actually making the opposite point. It's not about following the rules. It's about initiative. It's about seeing your assignment, this can be self-imposed, and not flinching, not faltering even when you have no idea how or if you will get it done. It's about being willing to do whatever it takes to do the thing that has been asked of you no matter how heavy a load.

To use A Message to Garcia, which an entire generation of Americans would do well to read and read again, as a platform to showcase some hypocrisy in Elbert Hubbard is weak. Perhaps that hypocrisy was present in Hubbard. It's possible. He was a controversial figure. He also made a serious dent in our world which people are still falling into today.