Just Keep Going . . . and Going
By Jeremy Gulley
At this time of the semester, I remind myself and my students to persevere. The point to getting through is to keep working and remember that, soon, we will wake up and it will be over. But perseverance isn’t always easy. In fact, I argue that perseverance needs practice, or at least a good motivation in order to be maintained.
If only we could all be more like Gary Levin.
Gary has the unique distinction of being one of only a handful of people to witness one of the most amazing events in American sports history: the longest baseball game ever played – a 32 inning minor league game between the Pawtucket Red Sox and the Rochester Red Wings.
The game, which began on Saturday, April 19th 1981, started at 8pm and lasted throughout the night, into Easter Sunday. The game was called at 4:09am, still tied, and postponed to June 23rd (where Boston won after one inning).
Levin, as a fan of baseball, stayed till the end, waiting to see what would happen.
The fact that he stayed for the entire game is only part of the story, though. Not only did the game last through the night, it was also bitterly cold, drizzly, and miserable. To warm themselves, the players actually started fires with broken bats in the dugout. Levin, unfortunately, wasn’t even wearing a hat or a cap – but was allowed to share some of the fire with the Boston bullpen. He nearly froze, but waiting through the miserable night to see how the game would end.
Why?
During an interview on CBS’s Sunday Morning, Levin said that when he was a boy, his father took him to a baseball game and left early. After they left, unfortunately, his team came back and won. He vowed right then that he would never leave a game early.
But I think there is more to it than that. A vow made as a child doesn’t seem enough to keep Levin in the cold overnight to watch a baseball game. I think that inside all of us is the desire to see things through to completion, and Levin realized that as a 19 year old sitting in the stands watching that game.
Levin’s task may seem odd, but I bet sitting through that game helped him to have the same sort of perseverance when he needed it in more important situations.
That’s the message of this part of the semester: perseverance now, finishing our projects, papers and final tasks will lead to the ability to persevere later. Perseverance is a skill that needs to be developed, practiced, and exercised before we can improve it.
Hopefully we won’t have to practice at a cold, rainy baseball game; but if we do, we’ll know it’ll help out later.
Short URL: http://osawatominews.com/?p=1140
Posted by admin
on May 3 2011. Filed under Jeremy Gulley, Opinion.
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