Keep On

 

 In June of this year, I told you about my friend Rebecca…a person who was my classmate throughout our school days, and with whom I reconnected a few years ago at the memorial services for her mother in our hometown.  I hadn’t heard much out of Rebecca in the past weeks, so I emailed her to ask if everything was OK.  As you may recall, Rebecca has been battling MS for over 20 years, and because of that physically is nothing like she was in earlier life.  She is an academic, and to my knowledge still teaches some using on line resources.

 Well, she responded to me a couple of days later.  Yes, everything is OK.  Because of the MS and the medications she has to take, her immune system is greatly compromised.  The vaccination for COVID will, in all probability, never cause her to develop antibodies, and if she catches the illness, it would be an almost certain death sentence.  The first line of her return email to me reflects that reality.  She writes, “I feel like a frustrated prisoner these days.  I have lost all sympathy or empathy for the unvaccinated.”  Whatever your viewpoint on vaccinations, I’m sure you can understand her point of view.

 So, what does someone with long term chronic MS who can’t go out anywhere because of a severely compromised immune system do with her spare time?  Well, if that someone is Rebecca, she signs up for chemical biology and immunology courses with Rice University with the goal of completing a course of study, and becoming knowledgeable enough about what is going on with her body in that field of knowledge to contribute to the ongoing discussions in that area by researchers, physicians, and others, especially as it relates to MS and related chronic conditions.

 I don’t know about you, but I am nowhere nearly as physically compromised as she is.  Yet going back to school for some kind of advanced degree isn’t even on my lowest priority bucket list, let alone go for an advanced degree in an area of study that is completely foreign to me which might help me better understand the osteoarthritis I have or perhaps some other thing related to my existence.  In fact, when I finally obtained my undergrad degree in my mid 40’s, my advisor recommended I go on for an MBA.  I politely declined and have never regretted that decision.  I’m not anti-advanced education; I just have too much I’ve not yet done in life that I want to do, to carve out time for that.

 I greatly admire people like Rebecca who “keep on keeping on,” as the saying goes.  I told her that she inspired me…not to go back to school, but to continue in life and living as fully and completely as I can.  I only have to begin a pity party for myself when I think of her and others I know who are in much more difficult straits than I am in, and I quickly realize it’s time to put away the party stuff and get back into life.

 I don’t know where you are in life.  I don’t know if you are having some kind of chronic issue, whether medical or something else.  I don’t know if you are young or older.  I don’ know your beliefs regarding God, religion, and so on.  But I do know that regardless of all of that, the human condition generally has always been one of pressing on.  For a guy named Paul, who wrote much of the New Testament, that was also his mantra.  Here’s what he said about that:  “This one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

For Paul, that prize was the eternal hereafter in the presence of God and the reward for Paul’s faithfulness in this life.  Above all else, this should be our goal as well as we press on in our daily lives…keeping on keeping on…as we count our days with gratitude and thanksgiving.

 Blessings.