Article February 11, 2019 Issue

Dropping the weight of discouragement

Mark Swinney

Twenty-six miles, three hundred and eighty-five yards. 42.195 kilometers. If you were running a marathon, that’s exactly how far your finish line would be from your starting line. Before taking even a single step, you’d know precisely how far you’d have to go.

Suppose instead that you were running a race in which the distance to the finish line was uncertain. It could be 100 feet, 500 yards, a mile, or any random distance. Only when you were told to stop would you know you were finished.

Knowing the exact distance to the finish line, even if it’s a very, very long way off, can be reassuring. There is no doubt as to what it will take to finish. If the distance were undefined, with each step we might anxiously wonder, “Is this the last step? Is this? Am I ever going to reach the finish line?”

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