Don't Quit

Hollywood has known its share of tragedies:  Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, and Susan Peters to name a few. 



Susan Peters in Random Harvest

 Susan Peters doesn't get the attention the others do.  She'd received an Oscar nomination for her performance as Kitty in 1942's Random Harvest.  Three years later, she was hunting with her husband, actor Richard Quine when a rifle accidentally discharged and she was paralyzed from the waist down.  The studio, which paid for her bills, eventually cancelled her contract.  In 1947, she divorced Quine, the majority of people saying she didn't want to be a burden to him.

In 1952, she passed away at the age of 31.  The coroner's report said it was a combination of kidney disease and anorexia.  But they were wrong. 

Susan Peters had simply quit. With her career over, she felt she no longer was productive.  Therefore, she wasn't useful, so why bother? 

Quitting is one of the easiest things in the world to do.  It's also one of the most selfish.  We quit due to the fact we "can't take it any more," but we forget about the other examples that suffered far greater examples.

Look at the British after Dunkirk.  They have every right to throw in the towel.  But they had a secret weapon no one realized:  Spunk.  Everyone knew the Germans would be coming, and Churchill merely said,

"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France,
we shall fight on the seas and oceans,
we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;
we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old."

Consider the position of the United States on December 7, 1941.  At the day's end, they had every right to call it quits.  Instead, they persevered, coming together and forming the greatest team ever assembled. 

In 1914, the Boston Braves were in last place.  They were the joke of the National League, and  everyone thought the New York Giants had the pennant in the bag.  By the end of the season, the Braves had not only won the pennant, they swept the Philadelphia Athletics in the World Series. 

Thirty-seven years later, the New York Giants were thirteen and a half games behind the Brooklyn Dodgers.  At the end of the season, the two teams were tied and the Giants won a three game playoff in the bottom of the ninth of the last game.  Like the British, the U.S., the Braves, they didn't quit.

During the Great Depression, my grandfather had to work three jobs to feed his family.  He'd come home with his hands covered with dye and cry, wondering if he was going to be able to feed his family.  Yet in the early 1950s, he and his sons started their own business.  He never quit.

Quit is one of the worst four letter words in the English language, and it is also one of the worst things a person can do to themselves.  In another speech, Churchill merely said, "Never give in.  Never, ever give in." 

Our generation is soft compared to those who came before us.  We want to drop out, to quit, because it's the easy thing to do.  The easy road is often lined with more potholes than we realize.