Monday, November 8, 2021

The Endless Marathon

We should look to the past to learn how we can live through the present

By Kevin Kohut, BC Director

The past 20 months have been a bit of a marathon—one without a visible finish line.

At first it was a short but pesky trek. We had hopes it would soon be over and we could put this crazy inconvenience behind us and move on. Just wash your hands and we’ll get through this, we thought.

Oh, and sanitize everything around you.

Maybe stop shaking hands and hugging, and this will soon be over.

Okay, we’re almost there—just stop being near other people.

On second thought, maybe it’s easier to close businesses for a while, then we can finish this race.

Any chance we could not leave our houses and find a way to work from home? Surely this will bring us closer to the finish line!

And so it goes.

My grandpa was a carpenter. He was a man of few words, but I remember him describing what daily life was like during the Great Depression—another seemingly endless marathon that lingered for years, making work, money, and resources scarce.

What stood out to me was how he never spoke about that time like it was a trauma that he endured. Instead, he focused on what it was like to live during that time.

I would always ask negative questions.

“You couldn’t go to restaurants?”

“Wasn’t it boring?”

“What did you do?”

He described it as a time of playing harmonica and music on the porch, eating lots of beans that actually tasted pretty good (“when you’re hungry”). He was grateful to work whenever he could, and they made do with what they had. I don’t know for sure, but I imagine that life at the time became their new normal.

I’m not sure when we’ll approach the finish line of this time we’re in. I’m not even sure if there is a finish line. However, I am grateful that, in this moment, the vast majority of our members are working. We have meaningful work that other eras would envy.

Difficult times can destroy us, define us, or make us stronger. I guess it all depends on how we look at it.

The Endless Marathon

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