Of all the sports in which I participated in high school, track was the most enjoyable because I could always look forward to a finish line. I liked contests defined by clocks and scores because those told you when the game was over. When I got into bike riding later in life, I always set my destination, either time or distance, before I left the house. One of my frequent riding partners took a different approach. Given the option, she would ride until she decided it was enough, which was almost always farther than I wanted to go. It drove me crazy because I found it too random. I never knew where the finish line was. I planned my vacations in a similar fashion, knowing where I would spend the night prior to departing. Getting to the finish line was the goal. (Yes. I’m aware that I have control issues.)
Retirement has helped me become less structured in parts of my life and less concerned about a finish line. Being creative has also been a great assist in that area. While I crossed the finish line on my revenue producing career a few years back, my creative activities have increased. I plan to keep doing creative things until my earthly career ends with only a small amount of thought given to the “big finish line.” Even pondering that, there is excitement at the prospect of what comes next and where it happens.
With the pandemic and the presidential election, Americans had two very large items that sucked up a lot of emotional, psychological, and even physical energy every day. We are in desperate need of finding the finish line. There are folks telling us it is just ahead, but we’ve been in the middle of this for so long that we are skeptical and heading toward cynical. Many of us are walking wounded and find ourselves engaged in non-productive and questionably healthy activities. We wonder if we will make it to the "new normal," and if we do, what our lives will be like when we emerge from this.
Given that we have little influence and no control over the pandemic or the election, it could be helpful to reframe things. I am reluctant to label any date as a finish line. Perhaps it’s time to stop asking, “Can I make it to the finish line?” Instead, ask, “Can I keep going?” It’s much easier to conceive just putting one foot in front of the other than to deal with more disappointment when the finish line fails to be where we think it should.
Let’s keep going.
