Persistence

Let me tell you a short story with a not so happy ending. Well I will let you decide that for yourselves. A week or so ago I was eating my lunch in my truck in the parking lot of our warehouse. As I was enjoying my meal, out of nowhere a bee flies through the open window of the passenger side. I take off my ball cap and swat him out the window.  I saw that I knocked him down but did not see where he landed.  I was thinking I knocked him outside of the truck. I say him because I will not hit a girl.  (Unless it’s my sister, long story ask her) Seriously not cool to hit a girl. As I finish my lunch break I walk around to the passenger side of the truck to see if he is still flopping around in pain because I was going to do the humane thing and put him out of his misery. (After I taunted him for messing with the wrong truck) I didn’t see him so I thought that maybe he had rolled under the truck for protection until he got bee wits about himself and could fly off.  So be it Mr. Bee I had left my mark. I left it at that and went inside to go back to work. I did not think anything else about it until this morning.  I got in my truck this morning and there it was a dead bee in my cup holder. My mighty swing had finally killed him a mere week and a half later.   I just want everyone to know that was my plan, a slow painful death for disturbing my lunch with a potential sting. Here is the funny thing. I have been driving for the last week and a half with what sounded like something bouncing off of a paper bag. Yes a paper bag that is what fast food comes in and I had one lying on my back floorboard.  I thought that the noise was strange but chalked it off as weird truck noises. It now occurs to me that that bee was in my truck the whole time and could have struck me at any time he chose to do so.

     My lack of persistence could have cost me a bee sting whilst driving down the road.  It would have been my own fault for not verifying where the bee went after I swatted it down. Lucky for me I had the only bee in America with a love for McDonald’s fries and he never posed a threat. But of course now I have a concern that fries are deadly to bees.  One topic at a time, I digress.  Once again this weekend I was reminded of the value of persistence.  As I watched the tale of two nights, where the same team had a different outcome each night it was a perfect example of persistence.  A lead of 4 runs heading into the top of the ninth, the home team winds up losing the game in the bottom of the ninth.  A person or team could surely give up and throw in the towel. It just wasn’t to be this year oh well. We will get them next year.  That is not what happened at all.  The home team comes back the next night and finishes the same team that humiliated them the night before to win the division title. 

       We never know what life will throw at us. There will always be hurdles and obstacles. Sometimes we get complacent or lazy and give up before the race is finished. We give up too quickly when right around the bend is the finish line with your reward for running the race well. We will never know what could have been because we let life defeat us.  If we are unwilling to be persistent in the midst of a challenge then we cannot blame others for our predicament. I have known a few people in my lifetime that weren’t persistent. They got tired and life defeated them. They took their lives. They will never know how close they were to the payoff. Their life might have been on the upswing if they would have just run the last few steps.   In this life we may never have the why’s answered. We will never know what tomorrow brings. The thing to remember is as long as you have breath and a heartbeat, be persistent and run the race well.  As for the bee he was persistent he could have left the truck at any point during the week and a half he was in the truck he chose to stay and well, it cost him his life.  Maybe he was planning retaliation. Decision making is another subject for another time.