Finishing the race

I was thinking recently about the Olympics. If you were like me, you spent more then your fair share of time watching Olympic coverage into the late hours of the night. Much time was spent on the "under achieving" USA track team. There was much commentary about how sprinters were not winning races that should have been theirs and how individuals and relay teams were not even making it past their qualifying races.

BUT

I was taken back by the woman's 4 x 100 relay team. Like the men's team, they dropped their baton and were disqualified. Actually, let me rephrase that - the men were disqualified, the woman finished in last.

Here is the difference. When the men dropped the baton - they left it on the track.

The woman dropped the baton, but instead of letting it lie there standing around in dismay, they picked it up and ran to the finish.

Although they did not finish first, as a matter of fact, they did not even qualify for the finals, they still finished.

The truth is, the batons in our lives are dropped a lot. We yell at the kids. We fight unfairly with are spouse. We cheat. We lie. We think about what we shouldn't. We look at what we shouldn't.

We drop the baton.

Don't stand there and be dismayed that you dropped it.

Pick it up and keep running.

DON'T QUIT!