The other Sunday the minister at the church we attend gave a sermon on perseverance. It was mentioned in a religious sense, of course. However, he did give an everyday example of using perseverance. He mentioned that his dad had lost an expensive hearing aid while out in the yard. Apparently, a large number of neighbors had helped him sweep the yard – but to no avail. The hearing aid was among the missing.
Later the minister came by and heard the story. He suggested that they look again, but his father said that it was no use. The minister persevered and they went outside, where he pushed aside a bush and there was the hearing aid! The funny thing was that I had almost the same experience a few weeks ago. We were at a restaurant where the music was so loud, that I took my hearing aid out of my ear and put it in my pocket. I certainly didn’t need it in my ear at that time. Naturally, I forgot about it until we were home, and I found it was not in my pocket.
I was fairly certain that it had probably fallen out of my pocket when I pulled out my golf cart key. By then, it was pretty dark, but we zoomed back to the restaurant where I went in while The Blonde in the house looked at the street where we had parked – but no luck. We were ready to head back when I said, I am going to take one more look on the street where we parked the golf car. Sure enough, there it was. What makes this stroke of perseverance luck fall in the miraculous area is that everybody in the family knows that if anything is lost, it is The Blonde who finds what is missing. I can never find anything.
Now while the above may be an example of perseverance, it is not my gold standard of perseverance. That occurred a nice number of years ago when I went to a dance and first saw The Blonde. She was 5’ 2”, eyes of blue, etc. I decided then and there if I were ever going to use perseverance that was the time to do so. Therefore, I did, and after a while she told all her other suitors (she won’t tell me how many) to get lost. She naturally did it in a nice way, but there were reports of much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Unsurprisingly, I offer this as a supreme example of the value of perseverance.
I have tried perseverance in other areas. Golf is an example where I have been persevering for many a year. Unfortunately, it has not had a fortunate result. I am still a terrible golfer, but I am persevering the best I can. Friends shake their heads, and walk away mumbling that I might ruin their game. Consequently, they are no help.
I guess it is just not the same incentive that I had when I was using my perseverance ability on “5’ 2”, eyes of blue etc.”!
Barry Evans writes about Life in The Villages for Villages-News.com
