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Persistence

Lindsey’s Christmas Puzzle
 
Over Christmas lunch 2009, we opened Christmas crackers.

Inside one cracker we found a simple “Chinese puzzle”.

It consisted of two metal sections that were entwined.

The question was “how to separate them?”
 
Everyone tried to solve the puzzle.
Everyone tinkered with the entangled steel pieces.
 
Everyone failed.
 
After half an hour of frustrated effort, I concluded that, “If I could not do it - then it cannot be done!"
 
Eventually, after two hours everyone else gave up too.
 
Everyone except one person:
Lindsey kept going.
 
She kept coming back to the problem.

I said to her, “You are wasting your time- it cannot be done”.
Lindsey smiled and said “I bet it can. “

Lindsey battled on (periodically) all day and evening.
Nothing!

She picked it up again the next day, Boxing Day.
Boxing Day evening, at 8 PM Lindsey let out a sudden yell and said "YES!  I DID IT"
 
In triumph, she held up the two separate metal pieces.
 
I said, indignantly, “NEVER!
“How on earth, did you do that???"
 
Lindsey took great pride in demonstrating to us all “the method”.
 
The ONLY method of separating the puzzle.
 
She had been right:

There is a way to win.
 
And Lindsey has found it.
 
This story caused me to ponder the following truths:

1. What seems impossible may actually BE possible.

2. What seems impossible is in reality, EASY, but ONLY IF you first struggle to find “the method”.

3. That without “the method”, even simple things SEEM impossible.

4. That you should not accept defeat too quickly.

5. That intelligent persistence is finally rewarded.

6. That achievement gains the respect of others.

7. That achievement is more to do with action rather than educational qualifications.

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