The RACE

OK so I was trying to decide if I should post this or not. I hope Don doesn't mind. But this is sort of like a journal for me. I want to get it bound at one point and I love this letter. I am so grateful for this blog because it helps me to take more pictures of write down some things that normally I wouldn't write. This is a letter from Don. Caleb was the only one who read it but one day as the kids get just a little older I will show them as well. One thing that I really love about Don is that no matter what happens in his life he gets right back up and keeps fighting.

I felt inspired to write something today about how I have been feeling lately. I have been really hard on myself lately. I look back through all the years of one failure after another and at times get really tired. There are times when I feel that I will never be successful in whatever I try to do. The years of being called lazy, space cadet, unmotivated, stupid and a host of other equally malicious names has taken its toll on my self esteem. But then I have days like today. This is what I wish to write about. This is what I want my kids to read; all of them. This is what I want them to remember about me more than my failures and shortcomings. This is what I hope and pray they will take from me and learn to be the same.
One of my favorite stories, the title for which I cannot recall, is about a young man in a race. I cannot recall exactly how the story goes, but the meaning is really all that matters. You see, this young man is not the strongest among his peers. He is weaker and less skilled than some of them. However, there is one thing that makes him equal to or even stronger than the rest, and that one thing is his spirit. He entered the race and no one figured that he could win. The starting gun went off and the race began. For a while the young man was able to keep up with the crowd of other racers, but soon he was left behind. The young man continued to put his all into winning. Unfortunately, he was working so hard that he ended up tripping from the effort. He fell to the ground, depressed and broken. He could hear the crowd’s gasp as he hit the ground, scraped and injured. For a few seconds he lay there wanting to give up, but then something within him cried and told him to get up and run. By now the runners were far ahead of him with no hope of him catching up. Yet he stood up, proud and resolute, and began to run as fast as he could. Again the young man tripped and fell, even more depressed and broken as before.
By now the crowd was no longer watching the racers at the front. Their attention was transfixed on the young man lying on the ground. Again the young man got up, brushed himself off and began to run as fast as he could. By now the lead racers were crossing the finish line. One by one the rest of the racers crossed the finish line when finally the race was over. The race had its winner; or so they thought. Again the young man tripped and fell, by now bruised, bloody and heartbroken. However, this time the crowd began cheering him on. They called for him to get back up again. The young man stood and looked about him and realized that the race was over. What did he do? Did he quit and say, “Well the race is over, someone won already and there is no use for me to run anymore.”? No! The young man brushed himself off yet again began to run. Finally, sweat pouring from his face, blood dripping from his knees where he had scraped them when he fell, he crossed the finish line. With his head down he lamented that he had failed and lost the race. He was all alone on the track, lost in his sorrow for not winning. He could not hear the crowd cheering for him. He did not see the rest of the racers rushing out to the track to greet him when he finished. It wasn’t until the other racers picked him up and put him on their shoulders that he realized what was going on. He looked around confused and realized that the crowd wasn’t cheering for the one who won the race, they were cheering for him, because he had finished the race.
You see, this was no ordinary race. This wasn’t a race that had just one winner. The only losers in this type of race are those that give up and don’t ‘finish the race.’ This race had multiple winners. Every person that crossed that finish line had won the race. Yes, there were some that had run very fast, some that were more athletic than the others; however, the point of this story is that everyone in this race had given everything they had to finish. They never gave up, and in the end they were all winners. You see, sometimes it is those that suffer the most pain and anguish that receive the greatest response from the crowd. They are the ones that seemed to have every reason to quit, yet they continue to get back up no matter how many times they fall.
There are many stories out there that depict this exact scenario. Movies have been made about those people or teams who appear to have no hope of winning. Sonador was a race horse that had broken her leg. Everyone believed that she should have been put down. However, someone believed in her, her leg healed, and she went on to win a big race. The 1980 U.S. hockey team in the Olympics of that year in Lake Placid New York didn’t have a chance to even win a bronze metal let alone a gold. They were going up against the Russian team who it was believed was unstoppable. They proved everyone wrong by beating the Russians and winning the gold. Rudy Ruteger was a small kid who had dreams of playing football for the College of Notre Dame. He had a learning disability and wasn’t big enough to play college football. Everyone laughed at him when he dreamed of going to Notre Dame. Yet he proved everyone wrong and graduated from Notre Dame with good grades, played football and was the only player in Notre Dame football history to ever be carried off the field by his team mates. On a more personal note, I was told that I probably wouldn’t amount to much in life. I wasn’t very good at school. I was told to forget going to college and try to find a good enough job to at least take care of my family. People say that people who have ADD aren’t able to learn a foreign language or will probably not do too well in college. My victories may not be as big and dramatic as those of Sonador, the U.S. hockey team or Rudy Ruteger. They may never be made into a movie, but to me my victories are gigantic. Look what my dreams and victories have produced. I am married to a wonderful woman whom I love dearly. I have five very beautiful and wonderful children whom I am very proud of. I have a great job using Arabic that I was told it would be impossible to learn.
What I want you kids to learn from this is two things. First, don’t ever give up. No matter how hard things get or how futile it appears to keep fighting, never give up. You may fall down a thousand times in life, you may get so discouraged that you will want to quit, but never give up. If you are the one to finish the race first, that means that you go back and support those who are falling behind. Help and cheer on those who are falling behind. Help them to finish the race. Second, dream big! I have told you before that you can do whatever you want to do in this life. Do not ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. As long as it is a righteous dream and you work hard enough, you can be and do anything that you want. When I look at each of you kids I see potential. I see Caleb’s good heart and kindness, Zachary’s sense of humor and helpful attitude. I see Rachel’s excitement for life and great imagination. I see Ethan’s sense of humor and tenacity. Last but not least I see Mayah’s love and fighting spirit. You all have what it takes to dream big and make it happen. Dream big and never give up and always remember that I love you all.



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