When our lush, wax-leaf Ligustrum limbed out over the wall into our neighbor\u2019s pool, I smiled and offered to take care of the intrusion for her. My husband, Rande \u2013 I chirped \u2013 would climb up and cut the limbs back. (Any excuse to use the trusty chain saw, right?) And I would enjoy \u201csuntan aerobics\u201d by dragging the branches across two yards to the street dumping point.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At first, it was a brilliant idea! Rande was whirring (and sweating) away, experiencing the ultimate joy of power tools, and I was getting a fantastic workout, hauling gigantic limbs. But the first half hour turned into an hour and then, it was two hours, and I began to sing, \u201cBoy, you\u2019re going to carry that weight, carry that weight a long time!\u201d Some 50-odd years after The Beatles penned those lyrics, I began to understand their real meaning.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
You know, it\u2019s fairly easy to carry something \u2013 even something heavy \u2013 for a short duration. If there\u2019s an end in sight, you can do it! You just grit your teeth, lift with your legs, breathe, and go for it.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
But when you have to carry a weight a long time<\/em>, that\u2019s a completely different story. It takes real character to endure the long haul.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I just finished writing Vol. 4 in The John Lennon Series<\/strong> after four years of some pretty intense research, writing, and editing. And, in this last year as the worked stretched on and on and on, I began to doubt that I could carry that weight any longer\u2026even though my husband and best friend, Lanea, were working right along with me \u2013 even though I had great editors and a wonderful research assistant. Still, the work seemed overwhelming\u2026even unendurable, at points. For the first time in my life, I considered giving up.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n But I had a great role model in perseverance: The Beatles. No one I\u2019ve ever known could do it better. Just in 1964 alone, the boys steeled themselves to complete two LP\u2019s; the film, \u201cA Hard Day\u2019s Night\u201d; a World Tour, a lengthy North American Tour, and a \u201cno frills\u201d Autumn U.K. Tour\u2026all the while writing songs, giving interviews, starring on TV specials, doing radio shows, and even performing an aerial ballet at \u201cThe Night of 100 Stars.\u201d And though, by December, they were truly knackered \u2013 bone weary \u2013 somehow, they found the verve to do it all again in 1965.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What was The Beatles\u2019 secret? My theory is that they were able to endure because they knew what was required of them was important and necessary. Those who survive do so because they realize that if they want to reach \u201cthe toppermost of the poppermost,\u201d they must be constantly \u201cworkin\u2019 like a dog,\u201d \u201ceight days a week.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You see, I think our most difficult struggles are important ones.<\/strong> We live through chemo to cure the cancer. We accept the disorder and loneliness of moving to a new location to find that new career or new school or new life. We take the pain of a dissolved relationship to move ahead into a new hope. We work without sleep, \u2019round the clock, to create something that will last. Carrying the weight generally means that we are constructing tomorrow \u2013 that we are hauling in immense building blocks for something worthwhile. And that\u2019s never easy.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of the hardest parts of long-suffering (of \u201ccarrying the weight a long time\u201d) is the feeling that no one else is hurting the way we\u2019re hurting \u2013 that everyone else is leading a better and\/or happier life and that we, alone, are in constant pain. But that is never true.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Attending church with my son and daughter-in-law two Christmas Eves ago, each family was given a book written by one of the pastors at the church. It was entitled Everyone\u2019s Perfect (Until You Get to Know Them)<\/em>. I so love that title and the truth in its premise.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n I sincerely believe that ALL (and yes, I mean ALL) of the people whom we eye enviously (you know, those folks who are sailing blissfully through life while we struggle under the load), are secretly carrying a tremendous weight as well. They may disguise it, but they are heavy-laden, in some form or another, just as we are.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tonight, I heard a brilliant quote from newsman, Brit Hume. He said, \u201cEvery person you know<\/em> is dealing with something you don\u2019t know about. Be kind. Be very kind.\u201d Every. Person. You. Know.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Each and every individual has a burden.<\/em> No one is exempt.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We\u2019re in this together, and we all share the same fate: that is, we must keep going. We must keep moving forward, keep trying, keep trudging toward the goal line. The Beatles didn\u2019t say, \u201cWe suggest you carry the weight,\u201d or \u201cWe think you should carry the weight,\u201d or \u201cIt would be nice if you carried the weight\u2026\u201d No, they said, \u201cBoy, you\u2019re GOING TO carry that weight, carry that weight a long time.\u201d It was a flat statement of fact: you will<\/strong> do this. This will happen. This must be.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Our boys, as always, were quite right. Our lives consist of putting one foot in front of another. Our days are built upon the motto, \u201cKeep on keepin\u2019 on.\u201d Life is certainly no picnic, no simple chore. But knowing we\u2019re all in this together, it\u2019s something we can do. We get by with a little help from our friends.<\/p>\n Jude Southerland Kessler is the author of the John Lennon Series:\u00a0www.johnlennonseries.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Jude is represented by 910 Public Relations —\u00a0@910PubRel<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter and\u00a0910 Public Relations<\/a>\u00a0on Facebook.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When our lush, wax-leaf Ligustrum limbed out over the wall into our neighbor\u2019s pool, I smiled and offered to take care of the intrusion for her. My husband, Rande \u2013 I chirped \u2013 would climb up and cut the limbs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":7466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[98,117,30],"class_list":["post-7465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-baby-boomer-beatles-blog","tag-jude-southerland-kessler","tag-the-beatles","tag-the-fest-for-beatles-fans"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7467,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7465\/revisions\/7467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thefest.com\/?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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