13 NOV 2024. I was destroyed but not defeated. By which I mean that my state of mind was like that of Hemingway’s fisherman in Old Man and the Sea. I had lost my great, beautiful marlin to the sharks, but I had not lost my resolve. I didn’t yet understand why we weren’t able to fend them off this time. There are always sharks. But I did know one thing: a man cannot be defeated if he does not surrender his hope.