“Standing Proud“–At the Principle Gallery, Alexandria, VA
A man on a thousand mile walk has to forget his goal and say to himself every morning, ‘Today I’m going to cover twenty-five miles and then rest up and sleep.’
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
How do we continue to persist? That’s a question I ask myself more and more as I age, as the aches and pains and breakdowns of the body mount up. And even beyond the physical, I find myself asking that same question of myself. creatively and intellectually.
How does one endure?
I can’t say for sure. I guess you do what you do when you can do it and hope fore the best.
Maybe that’s the answer. That’s pretty much what Tolstoy wrote above said in describing the French retreat from Moscow in War and Peace. They were trying to get back to their native land as soon as possible but it was still a matter of just doing the same thing as always–doing what they could do and hoping for the best each day.
That pretty much works most of the time and maybe that explain one’s endurance in any way. Just keep at it.
Or maybe you take the Charles Bukowski route as in the video reading of his poem The Secret of My Endurance below from Tom O’Bedlam. I can’t say I am the biggest fan of Bukowski but sometimes he hits one out of the park or, at least, makes me think or laugh.
This one makes me laugh. Now, where I do I find a ten foot square cage?
Redtree Times 