"If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it."
So said W.C. Fields and I believe he's right.
That's not to say I'm a quitter.
I'm not.
I've kept working on a marriage long after it was over.
I stayed at Union Mission long after I knew it was time to go.
I actually had a football coach tell me once, "Elliott your problem is you try too hard. Stop trying so hard!"
"You don't want me to give it everything I've got coach?"
"Ummm, well yeah. That's not what I'm saying."
"That's what I heard coach."
"SHUT UP AND GIVE ME 100 PUSH UP YOU MORON!"
He was fired after the season but I'd moved on to trying other things.
As I reflect back, I now understand that I should have quit.
There was nothing else for me to do at Union Mission and I told people so but they were comfortable with me there so they did everything to talk me into staying. I listened to them but I shouldn't have. I should have listened to myself. I was a moron!
Same with the marriage. She left long before I recognized that she was gone. I don't know why I was shocked when she told me. I was a moron again!
In both cases, I just refused to give up.
I was a damn fool about it.
Oh well, live and learn right?
I'm in love and happy with Sarah.
I enjoy work without a safety net again! That's the way it was when I started at Union Mission.
Being a fool, much less a damn one, is no fun whatsoever!
I don't recommend it to anybody.
The sad fact is each and every one of us is a damn fool at some time or another.
And if you're being one now ... at work, in a relationship, politics or religion ... quit!
QUIT NOW DAMMIT!
It's alright.
It really is.
