Life-lessons

Today we took a little nine-mile hike through the forest to reach a spectacular 400' waterfall. Our group consisted of a handful of adults and a troop of boy scouts. Many ages and abilities were represented. We had only one goal though: start together and finish together.

We had some late starters but we quickly got them caught up to the troop. Many of the boys wanted to stretch their legs and fly down the trail. A number of the lads were content to cruise along in the middle of the pack. A few of the boys wished they hadn't gotten out of bed this morning...and they may not be able to do so tomorrow morning!! But we decided that since we started together, we would finish together.

We would go up a steep hill and our line of hikers would stretch out. We would gently slinky some of the way back together on the downhills but then slowly spread further on the next climb. After a bit we would arrest the lead and patiently wait for the tail to stumble back in. We started together and we hoped to finish together.

We tried different speeds of hiking: light-speed, snail-speed, exhausted-speed. If nothing else, we proved an old adage: "A chain is only as strong as its weakest link". We tried breaking the chain for a minute. We pulled the chain for a good bit. A number of times we let the chain flop down on the ground and rest. We started together and we were going to finish together.

You draw the analogies. There are many. But I am happy to report that we started together and we finished together...and my legs are a little stiff!