This wasn’t the post I’d planned to write this morning.
Over the weekend I had the pleasure of chaperoning my daughter’s team at our town’s Relay for Life event. It’s her third one, and it was a joy to watch the kids’ energy and enthusiasm throughout the night – even if not everyone (including one of my co-chaperones!) didn’t manage to stay up all the way through to morning.
It’s a moving, uplifting event that is the essence of hope. Yet, as you can tell from the fuzzy cellphone photo I took at 2:00 am here, there are far too many luminarias lit around the track in memoriam. From my own friends and family, cancer has taken too many, too soon. It’s likely done the same to you, once you have enough mileage under your belt.
It’s all the more poignant because, coincidentally, several friends of mine have lost friends, family or colleagues these last couple of weeks, for a variety of causes. I knew none of those who have now gone. I find it hard to know how to best offer comfort to them beyond mere platitudes.
Still, life, as the aphorism has it, goes on. We step through our days because we have to. Frogmarched by the hands of time, sometimes all we can do is put one foot in front of the other. Sometimes, that’s more than enough, and a heroic act in and of itself. Simply showing up, day after day, whether in life, to support a friend, parent a troubled child or, yes, to build a business that lasts, is more than half the battle. It matters.
As a culture, we tend to focus on headline-grabbing acts, the dramatic escapes, the billion dollar acquisitions. Exciting stuff, for sure. But for me, personally, it’s been a sobering week, and I’m only – thankfully – a sympathetic observer. So today, as I dive into a fresh week here at work, I’m taking the time to think about the everyday heroes. Those forced by circumstance, chance or opportunity to make that small extra step to make a difference, whether at home or at work, often unacknowledged.
To the everyday heroes: Thank you all.
