The Treasure Chest: Tenacity Triumphs

It’s 5:15 a.m. I open the window to my marshland back yard to listen for the call of early birds. Sunrise begins later this week than last week, but by 5:45, I hear birds calling, wanting breakfast. Coffee in hand, I decide to polish off e-mail from the night.
My inbox is the pipeline to my career. Clients and Herald readers know how to find me. What will this morning bring? The first e-mail, written at 3 a.m. reads, “A note from Treasure.” There has only been one client named Treasure. I last heard from Treasure two years ago, when the third dental technician school dropped her. At that point her parents said, “We will pay for no more training. You think you know it better than your teachers and you don’t. You are on your own.”
Treasure barely earned a living as a late night topless dancer while she went to school by day. Nobody called her by her real name, Tess. The name “Treasure” was created when her Daddy first laid eyes on her and declared her his treasure. The name stuck. Although it was the brunt of countless jokes, Treasure liked her name so much that she used it in marketing.
She sent e-mails to businessmen that said, “Come and watch me dance and you can see my treasure chest.” The marketing, and the men who responded, created an oddly sleazy amalgam that suited Treasure. She hoped in vain, to meet the wholesome guy she would marry through her dancing, so she encouraged men to ask her out for a drink after work. She was continually surprised when some men wanted to see more of her treasures than she found safe.
Treasure found therapy laborious and ended it abruptly. I wished her well. Curious about why she would contact me suddenly, I opened her e-mail. The email had a list of 75 others who received it. A sea of bold purple capital letters greeted me:
“It has been a long road, but I persevered & finally made it I’m graduating 8/30/09. I’ll officially be a dental technician! Thank you for support through the rough times (for there were many)…it meant the world to me.”
After the sun yellow happy face with the big red mouth, Treasure left her address: “For those of you who have asked for my address, here it is.” I hoped she would get an inbox full of congratulatory wishes but suspected that the graduation might be a bit lonely. She had reported that people found her self-centered, which she did not understand. She lacked insight.
I made a note to send an electronic card. I admired Treasure’s amazing accomplishment. I applauded her tenacity. I found myself thinking how some of us muddle through adversity while others give up. I champion the best in clients but would not have predicted this graduation. Treasure lives with a tough combination of a personality disorder, a learning disorder, and barely average intelligence. But she persevered. More power to her.
The day has broken and I can hear the gulls. I have boated in these marshes and know that, for every bird I can hear, there are hundreds more in their nests. When the fall wind and rain pick up next month, they must still fly for food. And they will. Like Treasure, their tenacity is built into who they are.
What makes someone tenacious? Dr. Victor Frankl was an existential philosopher who survived Nazi concentration camps through commitment to his goals and values. Two of his central thoughts focus on pursuing meaning:
• “What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. (p.166)”
• A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the “why” for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any “how (p 127).”
Some of us maneuver pathways to meaning as complex as the narrow channels in the marshlands. Barely visible, these channels focus us through a maze of distractions that tempt us to be reduced to a state of emptiness. We do not become addicted. We do not become lazy. We simply continue. We move towards our goals. Like the marshland birds, we face adversity to feed our spirits. Tenacity triumphs and we are sated.
To consider: What is my spiritual nourishment this week? How can I move closer to my goal? How good will it feel to be tenacious?
To read: Frankl, Viktor E., Man’s Search for Meaning, Washington Square Press, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1963.
(Coche of Stone Harbor educates the public in mental health issues. She can be reached at jmcoche@gmail.com or 215-859-1050.)