Ten New Year’s Resolutions in One – “Keep Pushing the Wall!”

You know I’m big on lists, but for 2009 there is just one New Year Resolution on my list – “keep pushing the wall!” Not an original resolution, but one well-founded in my life.  

For years, my Uncle, Bob Inman, was an anchorman at WBTV Channel 3 in Charlotte, N.C. He closed out many shows with a personal editorial titled, “Closing Note.”My favorite was one he titled, “Try, Try, Again!” It was written in honor of my grandfather, Paul Strong.

Papa Strong was one of the kindest, most generous, and hardest working people you could ever know. So when he had his first stroke, and a very serious one, many thought the odds were against him. But Papa Strong listened to his own drum and kept on surprising people for the next six years.

To quote a passage from Uncle Bob’s video essay:  

“If Papa Strong taught me anything, it’s that we ought to occasionally try to do something that’s just downright impossible. Sometimes, we’ll find that it wasn’t impossible after all… that by sheer will and effort, we’ll defy all the odds and make a miracle. Even if we don’t, though, there’s something to be said for the effort. It’s like pushing with all your might against a brick wall. You may never move it an inch, but you’ll be stronger for having tried. And pushing something else may seem like a piece of cake by comparison.”

2009 is going to be a challenge, but certainly not the first in our lives; to a person, we got where we are by pressing forward. Uncle Bob closed his commentary by saying, “Papa Strong has been pushing against a brick wall for six years now since the stroke. And by golly, he moved it.”