We Tried

By: James Neuhouser

We tried but we lost. This week 68 teams tried out for the national championship in basketball. One team won and 67 lost. Counting teams didn’t make it, probably hundreds lost. I was watching the final game last night that was extremely close. The game was decided by a single bounce of the ball. An entire season determined by a single play, which way the ball happened to bounce. 

This week I received news that a high school buddy had died. I had seen him nearly every week in town and he was always healthy, but I had heard that he had a fall several months ago. Several days ago someone told me he was nearing the end. 

As I read the obit, he had three children, 12 grand children and six great grandchildren with two on the way. He had been married twice, divorced his first wife, but the second was a better choice. He had been a delivery truck driver, but he was quite successful.  A very hard worker. 

Out of high school he found a job driving a Coke truck, and did quite well at it, talking grocers into running Coke specials. He married the daughter of a factory owner, and went to work for his father-in-law, but he was a truck driver there. He knew all of the ins and out of the business. You might say he helped to run the business out of a delivery truck. He and the boss’s daughter got a divorce, but  he still stayed with her father’s company.

Later his son took over the business and he was still a big part of it. But he was content to be a delivery truck driver. By that time he had remarried. I remember the girl that he was sweet on in high school but that was as far as it went. I heard that she married and her husband was killed in an accident. We never saw her again and she never came to any class reunions. 

I never saw my closest buddy in high school after commencement night. He lived with his mother and I’d heard they moved to South Dakota. We had perhaps a dozen 5-year class reunions and no one was ever able to locate him. His name was Larry Jack. 

One thing that happened in my lifetime was that my Coke truck buddy did not go on our senior class trip. He lived on a farm and he was too busy or some excuse. It was one of the highlights of our life, but he never seemed to regret it. Guess it was too late anyway. I guess you might say we won some and we lost some. We tried our best. Sometimes our best was good enough and sometimes not. 

As I see the row of bricks up ahead I can see the finish line. We have crossed the starting line, and somehow made it to the first turn. Down the front shoot and into turn 2. We have exited turn 2 and headed down the back stretch, and into turn three. through turn 3 and into the back straight away. Through the back straight away and into turn 4. Now we have made it through turn 4 and are heading for the finish line. Now we see the row of bricks up ahead, and are just a few seconds away from the finish line.     

Just heard a preacher quoting a verse, in this life you will have trouble. I guess we’ve had our share of trouble, but any race no matter if it’s 500 mi or longer we need to end it with a sprint. Our race has been a long distance run, you might say a marathon, but in the days that we have left we will try our best.