So Very, Very Close...But

Stuff like this is hard to read.  Not hard to read like stories about people being wounded or killed in fighting or war, or folks losing all they have in a natural or man-made disaster, or families being torn apart by all the things families are torn apart by; not that kind of hard to read, but hard to read, all the same.

Stuff like this may be hard to read because we all know what it feels like to be so very, very close to something big, something good, something lasting...only to never actually get the big thing, the good thing, the lasting thing.

So here is the stuff I am talking about:
"What a tough break for Chicago Cubs second baseman Darwin Barney, who was three outs away from breaking Placido Polanco's Major League record with his 142nd consecutive errorless game at second base, before committing a throwing miscue in the Cubs 8-3 loss to the Diamondbacks on Friday night."


So very, very close...but.

I offer some pictures that capture the feelings, I think, of those of us who have been so very, very close but never actually got...

I wish Darwin Barney had broken that record!  Records are meant to be broken.  Dreams are meant to be realized.  Goals are meant to be achieved.  Aren't they?  But more often than not, it seems, we read about the near-misses and not the have-gots.

Here are some words from wise people on the subject at hand:
~To risk is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To expose feelings is to risk exposing our true self. To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk loss. To love is to risk not being loved in return. To live is to risk dying. To try at all is to risk failure. But to risk we must. Because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing. The man, the woman, who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing.  -Ralph Waldo Emerson


~We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

~When you don’t get what you want, you suffer. If you get it, you suffer too, since you can’t hold on to it forever.  -Peaceful Warrior

~Loss is the great unifier, the terrible club to which we all eventually belong.  -Rosanne Cash

Well, since we nowadays reduce some of our deepest thoughts and greatest perplexities to bumper-sticker or T-shirt slogans, here are two T-shirts to put this whole mess in perspective...

Better luck next time, Darwin Barney.  Never stop trying.  I'm not a Cubs fan but I will be cheering you on.  You were so very, very close, man...but.