Tenacity

Tenacity...I first heard this word when I was a teenager many, many years ago in church. A leader in our church had preached on this subject during one of the Sunday Services.

tenacity = persistent determination, to stick with something even when the going gets tough, never giving up.

Today I read in the newspapers about a man in India who took 14 years using a hammer and chisel to carve a tunnel through a mountain...wow...

PATNA: An Indian villager used a hammer and chisel over the span of 14 years to carve a tunnel through a rocky mountain so that he could park his truck in front of his house.

‘I could not park my truck near my house since the mountain blocked my path,’ Ramchandra Das, 53, who lives in eastern Bihar state’s Gaya district, told Reuters.

Das said fear of thieves stealing his truck prompted him to work on the tunnel all by himself after authorities refused help.

‘I had to leave my truck miles away, so I decided to do something about it myself,’ Das said by telephone.

Local villagers, who had to trek for miles to get around the mountain are using the 14 feet wide tunnel to reach their farms, and praising Das for his work.

‘We rarely come across a man who can work so hard to achieve his goal,’ Prabhat Kumar Jha, a local government official said.

(source DAWN.COM)

This is a fine example of tenacity, a quality that I find lacking in many people today...including myself. Perhaps we have grown too accustomed to having modern appliances and machinery that help us save time and make life so much more comfortable that we miss having the sense of satisfaction that comes from perseverance and hard work.

I really do appreciate my washing machine, microwave oven, vacuum cleaner, electric mixer and everything else that help me in my housework...but the downside of it is that I notice I need to spend more time exercising to shed extra kilos that probably came from having all these appliances do the hard work for me...how ironic.

After reading the news article about the hammer-and-chisel-man, Ramchandra Das, some people commented that if he had used some kind of modern machinery he would have gotten the work done in a few weeks. But perhaps he didn't have the modern equipment needed? I would rather focus on his accomplishment. I think what he felt after completing the tunnel far outweighed all the blisters on his hands, all the sweat and frustration, all the ridicule of his neighbours...what I learn from this is that sometimes we just have to be determined and keep our eyes on our goals regardless of the obstacles and distractions that we face...Mr. Ramchandra Das, he has tenacity.