Tuesday, November 25, 2008

"Fear Less. Live More."

What caught my attention was an ad for a Lincoln in an old New Yorker. Standing beside the car in the picture was a twentyish woman, radiantly beautiful, an athlete, doing her stretches. Then I noticed her legs: one was metal.

Sarah Reinertsen is the first woman to complete the Hawaii Ironman triathlon with an artificial leg. This race involves 112 miles on a bike, as well as long stretches of swimming and running.

In the sky of that stirring picture was a quote: "Don't ever give up...Not once. Not ever. My dream is to do extraordinary things every day."

Sort-a puts any holiday pressures into perspective, doesn't it? (Of course she may at this moment be totally wrecked over trying to deal with a turkey.)


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7 comments:

Unknown said...

I love what she says about doing extraordinary things every day. But I'm not sure that what I believe to be extraordinary things is precisely what she means, and it shouldn't be either: we have different paths for our lives.

I once made up a list during a workshop some years back. On my list are things like:

1) Let someone I love know I love them in an active way -- no "words only" allowed.
2) Racism, discrimination, bigotry, whatever you want to call it or define it: fight it. No matter how big or how small. Even if it's a casual, seemingly small thing as "just" a label, it's important. We're all human beings.
3) Live life with intent: feel every moment slipping away from you and fight to stuff each moment with meaning, even if it's to simply exist as hard as you can for as long as you can. So keep my goals in front of me, and make everything I do be part of working towards them.

I don't think I've always hit those targets, but posts like this one remind me that it's important to keep trying to do so...

Peggy Payne said...

A really good combo of items. And I like that there's three instead of a dozen. That way they're more likely to get attention.

Unknown said...

There were five, actually -- but they don't apply anymore because they were age specific and goal oriented. I suppose I should make two more, as it was actually a very useful exercise.

billie said...

I love the idea to do extraordinary things every day. It's a very freeing thought, actually, and I am interpreting it as permission to let some of the NON-extraordinary things go. :)

Peggy Payne said...

Cool! I'm curious to hear what non-extraordinary things you let go.

I like doing a lot of mundane stuff: picking up the cleaning, taking the recycling to the dump, etc. (Generally involves driving, I now see.) I'm not sure if it's the getting-things-done feel or the fact that it has a restful and procrastinatory rhythm that I like.

I did hear a guy say once that recycling is the virtue that satisfies the need for any other. That is how I feel when I do it.

billie said...

Dusting, for one. :)

Not that I'll never do it again, but for right now I'm just not worrying about it.

Peggy Payne said...

Good choice. Truly, I've never seen the point, except when totally reorganizing a bookcase. When I did that last summer, I had to wear a mask; otherwise my lungs started to hurt within a few minutes.