everyday heroes: perseverance

Perseverance.

Fictional characters can sometimes be excellent role models.

When I was a child, I was given a copy of Shel Silverstein's Where The Sidewalk Ends.  It is a wonderful collection of poems, if you haven't read it.  Please don't be put off by the phrase 'collection of poems' --many of them are laugh out loud funny.  If you have read it, then you already know and love it.  Shel Silverstein is difficult not to love.

The fictional character I look to for inspiration for perseverance is Melinda Mae, the protagonist of one of the poems in Where The Sidewalk Ends.  I was about to insert a photo of Silverstein's illustration that accompanies the poem and then realized, "Oh! It's probably copyright protected!"  Shel Silverstein is difficult not to love; it's probably just as difficult to get permission to use his images.  Imagine if you will a small girl sitting at a table, preparing to eat a very large whale, tail first.  There.  Copyright issues averted.  That small girl is Melinda Mae.

Anyway, Melinda Mae is given the task of eating a whale.  I'm certain Mr. Silverstein was thinking of that whale as a metaphor for a problem.  I'm pretty certain the whale is not meant to be a literal whale; if it is meant to be a literal whale, I really will need to rethink everything I currently believe to be true about Shel Silverstein.  Let's proceed under the assumption that it is a metaphor and that the heroine has one large challenge to address.

Melinda Mae starts in to eat that whale, beginning with the tail --more than likely because it rhymes, but possibly because it is a reasonable part to begin with.  She believed she could and she said she would eat the entire whale.  Our Melinda Mae is very headstrong.  This is necessary to persevere.  People look askance at stubbornness, but if you need to get something done, there's is no greater characteristic one can have.  

Melinda Mae may be small, but she is strong-willed and she tucks in methodically.  She shows us that, if you're going to try to eat a whale, you need to be persistent and not try to do it all at once.  Perseverance needs to be sustainable --small bites and steady chewing.  Sometimes progress is so tiny we cannot see it, but we continue because the whale isn't going to eat itself.

"Everyone" tells Melinda Mae she is too small to try to eat that whale.  There are plenty of "everyone"s in our lives --actual people, self-doubt, circumstance.  Melinda Mae paid no mind to those who questioned her abilities.  The rest of us may not be so confident, but in the words of that brilliant aphorist, Anonymous, "Fake it 'til you make it, baby."  As you proceed pretending you are as self-possessed as Melinda Mae, you will begin to see your progress on that whale, slowly but surely.  As you begin to see the progress, the feeling of accomplishment becomes real confidence.  You are fed not just by the metaphorical whale, but by the act of eating it.  You said you could, you said you would --and you did.

I'm pretty sure, even if you haven't read the poem, you know how it turned out for Melinda Mae.  It took her eighty-nine years.  She did it.  She never gave up.  Perseverance paid off for Melinda Mae --not so sure it worked out for the whale, but that's another story ...