March 11
Through enemy country, over snow and pass they marched — until the cry ran through the ranks: 'The sea! The sea!' To those who do not give up, hardship at last opens the way home.
Anabasis (The March of the Ten Thousand) (freely rendered)
Listening mode
Through enemy country, over snow and pass they marched — until the cry ran through the ranks: 'The sea! The sea!' To those who do not give up, hardship at last opens the way home.
In a long effort there sometimes comes a point at which nothing about the route changes, but a great deal about what it means. You are still just as far from the end as you were an hour before. Only now you know that, in this direction, there is one.
Before, from the inside, persevering looked hardly any different from stubbornness. You kept going because stopping seemed even harder, not because you had good reasons. Had someone asked you then why you didn't turn back, your answer would probably not have been very convincing. Whether it was endurance or mere persistence is decided only afterwards, and by something that was not in your hands.
There is an uncomfortable justice in this. The same perseverance that others later praise would, without the fortunate outcome, have looked like obstinacy, even to you. And whoever turned back at the same spot may not have judged any worse than you did.
When the sign does come, the relief is so great that you barely feel the exhaustion any more. It is there all the same. You walk the rest of the way on the same legs.
