Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Why Nothing is Meant to Be "Easy"

Liz is getting on me, saying I have been slacking off on my blog. Sometimes, I just don't think I have anything to say worth writing down for folks to read.....you can't have epiphanies everyday after all.  Also, like Thomas Jefferson once said, "He who knows most, knows best, how little he knows."  At the end of the day, I am but a simpleton trying to understand and make sense of the world around me while also keeping my emotions and dreams in check.

I do feel like I have something worth writing about today.  Last night I watched President Obama's State of the Union address.  Per usual, every presidential State of the Union is political , promising, and patriotic.  Obama's speech writers know, you can always count on patriotic statements to get the crowd clapping for you. All of a sudden, everyone is so high on being American that they have forgotten about all of their troubles. They don't feel so short changed after all in terms of unemployment, pay cuts, and every day woes of being stuck in a rigid social order in a country that has always promised social mobility. 

The President talked about the value of working hard and getting forward.  For many, this seems like a pipe dream.  I know I can speak from experience as a single working woman.  I feel very grateful to have not one job, but three jobs.....all to be able to make ends meet and plan for my future.  I am not saying this because I feel oppressed. I am saying this because I feel lucky; lucky to have the energy and resources to work, lucky to have had parents who taught me the value of hard work. Parents who would not let me cry when things just didn't go my way. 

In education and coaching I see this a lot.  Kids getting upset because things seem "too hard."  Striving for that "A" is too difficult. Or doing extra sprints after practice to get faster so as to get more playing time from a coach.  Why can't we find more joy and rewards in the pursuit that is difficult? That is why it should be even more satisfying. 

Consider Sgt. Cory Remsburg, Army Ranger. (My father was an Army Ranger and Vietnam War veteran, which probably accounts for his low tolerance for complaining when things got tough). The President reflected on Sgt. Remsburg, informing us that Cory signed up for the Army on his 18th birthday and since 2003, has had ten deployments with the US Army. On his last deployment, he was almost killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan. He was found face down laying in a nearby ravine. The bomb left him in temporary paralysis and in a coma for three months. He had shrapnel in his brain and in the explosion, one of his fellow Rangers died. After dozens of surgeries and loss of eyesight in one eye, he has now rehabilitated and is able to walk and talk.   He told President Obama that "Nothing in life that is worth anything, is easy."  What a lesson for all of us to learn, which Sgt. Remsberg learned in the most trying ways. 

My Dad, who has been deceased for 13 years, used to teach my sisters and I US Army Ranger cadences when we were younger and he would take us for jogs around the neighborhood. He would always sing, "R is for rough and tough."  To Sgt. Remsburg, they don't come any tougher than you.  

Thank you for reminding us that it will always be inevitable in this life to struggle, experience pain and bear witness to setbacks. My current challenges and problems pale in comparison to everything that you have been through. Nevertheless, I will never forget your story nor the hundreds of thousands of other stories of great American sacrifice which have become part of our cultural history and future. 

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