I'm out, done, finished...

What am I talking about? I'm not out. I'd like to be...but I'm not. My CrackBerry will sound the wake up call at 4:45 tomorrow morning and I will yet again drag myself out of bed to sit in an office for the next nine hours of my life. It all comes down to money, I suppose. If money weren't an issue I would surely grab that CrackBerry tomorrow morning and heave it with all my might out the nearest window. Money is an issue, though. If I don't heed the call of the CrackBerry then the options for myself and my family are very limited in life. So, I will heed the alarm and begin the next installment of my race here on earth.

The good thing is that perseverance is a character builder. Each time I roll out of bed at 4:45 it says something. I could make that CrackBerry a Nolan Ryan fastball (ok, more like an Obama first pitch) but what would that say about me? On the face of it I would be lazy. Deeper, maybe it would mean that I don't care. Maybe it would tell my children that work isn't that important. (Not to mention that cell phones make good fastballs) Maybe it would tell my wife that I'd rather sleep than be productive.

One of these days the race will be over. This isn't a race with winners and losers, oh no, it's a different kind of race. The big question will be, did you compete well? This isn't a race pitting people against other people. No, this is a one person race and there are billions of them going on around the world. Some races will be longer or more difficult than others. Some races will have booby-traps of every kind and other races will be on a solid, stable, racing surface. My race may have a curve where yours is straight, mine may have a hill where yours has a valley. Whatever the case, I hope you and I both compete well.