Laugh or Cry

Everyone has reached that critical point at some time in their life, be it personal, academic, or professional, where you must either laugh or cry. The stress of the situation becomes overwhelming, for whatever reason, and we have to make a conscious decision: Will we give in and fold or can we look past it and move on?

When I was running marathons, I always wanted to complete a race in less than three hours. That is the gold standard for a "recreational" runner. I had come close, but never done it. On a final attempt, a planned "last effort," I chose a flat course that ran in the fall, when I had always run my best. I did falter a bit with my training leading up to the race, but I felt I still had a good shot at the time.

As the race unfolded, my splits were not meeting their needed times and I was not feeling as good as I would have liked. At the 20 mile mark I was over 2:22:00, which meant I needed to run sub–seven minute miles for the next 6.2 miles. That was not going to happen, so I slowed to a walk. After the many weeks of training, time invested and sacrifices made, I would not attain my goal. Still, after a few minutes, I began to run again and finished with a time of just over 3:44:00.

The lesson that I walked away with (pun intended) was that it was NOT all for nothing. I still finished. I even avoided the utter soreness that usually followed for 36-48 hours after a marathon. Furthermore, I was okay with knowing I had done all that I could on the given day and that it was just not meant to be. I laughed about being passed by runners that were considerably older, later telling people that it was my "retirement" race anyway.

Taking what life gives you and simply dealing with it takes a bit of life experience. I have owned a business on Martha’s Vineyard for more than 10 years now. The first year was by far the most financially rewarding, as the country was still in the midst of an economic boom. Since that time, however, profits have steadily fallen. Each season has been shorter and noticeably quieter. I tried commuting to off-island clients, but that was more trouble than it was worth. I took another job helping coach teams at the high school, but that just helped pay the bills, not increase business.

The simple fact that the economy directly affected my business was obvious. There are few things that I could do personally to account for the decrease of my income to a third of what it had been that first year. But that is the case for many of the businesses here on Martha’s Vineyard. We have a certain number of weeks each season to make a year’s worth of profits or we will accrue debt until the following season and hope for a better season next year.

Should you happen to ask a merchant how it has been, most will say, “Business could be better.” That is the polite answer. Those are the brave or thrifty souls that have managed to survive, perhaps with a little help from friends and family. Personally, I am over it all. Last week a sub-contractor that was scheduled to work for the season left after three days. I pondered the situation for a while, cursed a bit and then continued on as if it was just another day. The next day I made some calls, found some coverage, and decided it was just another day . . . and I laughed about it. That’s all you can do sometimes.