Thursday, May 6, 2010

It’s not the easy times that define us.

My friend Sandy was in New York last week for a half-marathon. It was 55- degrees and raining in Central Park as throngs of women gathered at the starting line. Acknowledging the horrible weather, the emcee said, “It’s not the easy times that define us.” Sandy spent the next 13.1 miles mulling over those words. I’ve been pondering them too. How do we handle adversity? And are we comfortable being defined by the composure (or lack thereof) we display during those difficult times.

Coincidentally, this comes on the heels of a Livingston Productions project that’s all about people who overcome adversity and like it or not, become defined by it. For the past seven years, I’ve had the honor of producing the patient stories for the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, arguably the greatest trauma hospital in the world. For months at a time, I am immersed in the courageous battle of these patients and of the heroes who save them. Their triumph over adversity is such an inspiration. I am grateful to get to know these people and thankful to live in a state with such a great trauma and EMS system.

It’s not the easy times that define us. Nor them.