Frustration, Failure, and a Short Speach

     I have now been working out for about a month, in my pursuit of physical fitness and weight loss. The results on the scale and tape measure are somewhat discouraging. In the first two weeks I lost about 9 pounds and took 2 inches off my waist. Since then, I've actually gained 2 pounds back. That still leaves me 26 pounds and at least 3 waist inches from my goal. Fortunately I have a couple more months to accomplish this in.
     On the other hand, I have been able to increase both my speed and time on my running. I have been able to increase the weights when I work out, in some cases by as much as 30 or 40 pounds. While these are good things, they are still overshadowed in my mind by the lack of progress on the weights and measurements front.
     Am I telling you this just because I am having a pity party? Well, maybe a little bit. But it reminds me of a story that I'm sure most of us have heard before, the story of Abraham Lincoln. We are probably all familiar with the numerous setbacks and failures he had before he ever was elected president. Once in office, he faced the greatest struggle our nation has ever faced since its inception, the Civil War. There was nothing civil about it. More Americans died in that war than any before or since.
     It was while that war was going on that Mr. Lincoln was asked to give a speech. He did, and at the time, it was considered another failure. It was too short, too confusing, not worthy of the event were some of the criticisms leveled at the time.
     Please read the following words, and remember that what often seems like failure on the surface is actually not . . . it is triumph that takes time to grow! My struggles with weight are hopefully like that, what appears to be failure now, but in actuality are triumph that will grow.

     Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.  We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who hear gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
     But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.


     The next time you feel like you are failing at something, remember the words of Mr. Lincoln, and recommit to being dedicated to the unfinished work, whatever it is. It may seem crass to compare my struggles with the Civil War, and if so, I apologize. I simply hope to show that in our struggles, hope remains, and that just like that great struggle which nearly broke our nation, we can triumph. Press on, my fellow Penguins . . . keep waddling!