Is there a goal that you are pursing? How badly do you want to achieve it?
What are you willing to endure to achieve your goal or arrive at your destination?
Are you willing to be inconvenienced or even ridiculed?
Consider the story of Alvin Straight. At 73 years of age, Alvin wanted to see his brother Henry, who was 80 and whom he had not seen in ten years. Alvin felt an urgency about his visit as his brother had just suffered a stroke and his health was declining.
Alvin didn’t have a driver’s license because of impaired vision and he didn’t trust public transportation. The only thing that Alvin did trust was his John Deere lawnmower even though it was nearly thirty years old.
Alvin attached a ten-foot trailer filled with gasoline, food, clothes and a sleeping bag to his John Deere lawn mower and on July 5, 1994, he took off to see his brother Henry.
By the way, Alvin lived in Laurens, Iowa and Henry lived in Wisconsin. Alvin made the 240-mile trip driving his 1966 John Deere lawnmower at a top speed of 5 miles per hour. He drove primarily on back roads and arrived in Mount Zion, Wisconsin six weeks later.
Alvin’s journey was memorialized by a 1999 Walt Disney movie entitled “The Straight Story” which was directed by David Lynch and featured 78-year-old Richard Farnsworth as Alvin. The movie was so touching that Farnsworth was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Actor that year.
Harold Herring