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“Grit is the quiet courage to keep moving when comfort would have us stop — the steady fire that turns endurance into triumph.” — Author unknown
My friend Neil Vance offered up a wise observation on parenting.
“A parent can do no better than to instill in a child the virtue of grit.”
In a word, grittiness is the unshakable determination to keep moving forward despite —
- fear,
- fatigue, or
- failure.
It can be argued that parents who shelter their children from gritty experiences are doing them a disservice, for without these lessons they may be rendered helpless when the dump truck of misfortune makes a delivery at their doorstep.
Haven’t we all met up with this truck a time or two?
Better to teach a child life will test them and that grit will keep them standing when comfort and ease fall away.
Better that parents share with them how grit is their real strength, not merely talent or luck.
My friendship with Neil dates back fifty years to our time together in Chicago when we were fighting the good fight in a blighted neighborhood (5th City) on the west side of Chicago.
There, you measured development progress in tiny increments. The work was hard — often times impossibly hard.
But the rewards were immense.
I was working in the trenches with a gritty band of brothers and sisters whose lives blessed mine with a glorious sense of purpose.
The camaraderie of DOING, and more often than not, FAILING, at REALLY HARD STUFF, was its own kind of reward.
I look back and can say my friendships forged in this gloriously gritty environment have been among my most long-lasting.
Later, Neil went to a career as a college professor and it was there, at the University of Arizona, he observed the best predictor of a student’s ability to succeed was found in their grittiness.
The kind found in this Aesop fable:
The Crow and the Pitcher
A crow, half-dead with thirst, came upon a pitcher which had once been full of water; but when the crow put its beak into the mouth of the pitcher he found that only very little water was left in it, and that he could not reach far enough down to get at it.
He tried, and he tried, but at last had to give up in despair. Then a thought came to him, and he took a pebble and dropped it into the pitcher.
Then he took another pebble and dropped it into the pitcher.
Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the pitcher.
Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the pitcher.
Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the pitcher.
Then he took another pebble and dropped that into the pitcher.
At last, at last, he saw the water mount up near him, and after casting in a few more pebbles he was able to quench his thirst and save his life.
The 1936 Dorothea Lange photograph of Florence Owens, a migrant farm worker and mother of seven, struggling through the Great Depression, portrays the look of grittiness.
Florence Owens went on to successfully raise her children and live a good life until the day she died in 1981.
“I worked in hospitals, I tended bar, I cooked, I worked in the fields, I done a little bit of everything to make a living for my kids.”
- Who knows her IQ?
- Who knows her EQ?
But her GQ (grit quotient) was off the charts.
Grit is not loud or proud — it is the silent endurance of the soul that refuses to give up on love, on hope, or on life itself.
In the living of any life maybe grit is the most valuable virtue.
It is our faith in motion.
The next time you find yourself having to persevere through a difficult time, take a moment and reflect on the opportunity to practice the virtue of grit.
When all we can do is take one more step, grit becomes our prayer in motion — the whisper of faith that keeps us moving toward the light.
Just a thought…
Pat
Now hear Mark Pearson sing his song ~ As Long as it Takes