When You Find Yourself Deep In A Hole - Keep Digging
From appreciation to exploration to desperation to inspiration… to appreciation.
When you find yourself in a hole, keep digging. Looking up from the bottom of a hole - as I often have to do...
Just another day: It was summer, 1973. Sun in the morning sky. Music in the air. An open road. An adventure ahead.
Appreciation: She started early to minimize the effects of another hot and humid Mississippi day.
“Thank God it isn’t raining,” she thought as she saw the cloudless sunrise. It had rained all week, and the ground was saturated.
The bed of her Ford truck was loaded with a short ladder, a hand pick, a shovel, a flashlight, a day pack, lunch, water, and a metal pail. She had just received permission to explore a 50-acre farm parcel of land that was in foreclosure.
Even though it was a 90-minute drive from her campus office to this farm, she enjoyed the new speakers her brother had just installed into her truck… just before he left for Vietnam.
Then he became serious again. He said he missed everything about home, family, friends, food, and movies, but most of all, he missed his guitar. He even missed his sister. Soon she could hear his favorite song playing.
♫ Wanna take you higher Boom laka-laka-laka, Boom laka-lak-goon-ka boom, Boom laka-laka-laka, (Higher) Don’t ya wanna get higher? ♫ Song: I Want To Take You Higher. Artist: Sly and the Family Stone. Songwriter: Sylvester Stewart
Jeanine Simon was a professor of Americana History. She loved exploring abandoned farm homes, root cellars, old stone sheds, and crumbling barns.
She followed the remnant of what appeared to be an old driveway. Usually, it would have been a dusty road, but the road was still damp. It was about a quarter-mile from the main road.
She could see the stone foundation outline of what was probably a two-room home. She got excited and parked by backing up her truck next to the home, so she could open the doors and play her music while she explored the area for the next two or three hours.
In between the trash and the treasure exists the opportunity.
Garbage to most, treasures to her. Her favorite structures to explore were old outhouse holes. Since they often functioned as trash bins, she would sometimes find broken plates, old tin cans, broken clay tobacco pipes, worn-out shoes, and sometimes even jewelry. Every item had a history, every item had a story. She remembers once finding an apron that fit a baby doll.
Privy digger — explorer of man: Her college colleagues called her ‘Privy Digger,’ but she really was more than that. She was an explorer of man. Privys were a great way to learn about the people who lived here.
Don’t lose sight of the treasure while looking for trash.
Professor Simon walked the perimeter of the old home, moved rocks, and explored. She did find a bit of a broken cup, the glass neck from an old, blue-colored medicine bottle, and a small part of a rusted metal can. She expected more.
Then, to her delight, she could see an outhouse hole shrouded in weeds and partially covered by a tree.
She brought an eight-foot ladder, but the ground hole looked almost twice that deep.
Professor Simon thought, “This is going to be a great hole.”
Man’s explorations have always been defined by challenges and failure.
Exploration: She wondered how deep it really was, so she got on her stomach to look down into the hole. It was too dark to see the bottom clearly, so she walked back to her truck and grabbed her flashlight and the bucket.
She also turned her radio up to listen as she investigated her find.
♫ Hit it now! Get on up, (get on up) Get up, (get on up) Get up, (get on up) Get on up, (get on up)♫ Song: Get On Up. Artist: James Brown. Songwriter: Roger Rene Sanchez.
As she leaned over, she could see a couple of items at the bottom.
Professor Simon tied a rope onto the bucket handle in order to dredge the bottom of the outhouse.
It was just too deep.
Pride goeth before a fall. She had explored many outhouse holes just like this, so she was confident when she leaned over to extend her reach.
♫ I feel the earth move under my feet I feel the sky tumblin’ down, a-tumblin’ down I feel the earth move under my feet Tamerlane’ down ♫ Song: I Feel The Earth Move. Artist: Carole King. Songwriter: Carole King.
The soft ground gave way. The rains caused the earth to crumble. As she fell, she rolled herself into a ball as she hit the soft bottom. Her back landed on a couple of small rocks, but her day pack prevented worse injuries.
When you fall into a pit, you either die or get out. Chinese proverb.
She visually assessed where she was. She immediately saw what looked like the bones of a possum or raccoon that must have fallen into the hole and died.
It was quiet in the hole. Undisturbed by man, by history, by play, by hope. Then she faintly heard the music from her truck…
♫ I can dig it, he can dig it She can dig it, we can dig it They can dig it, you can dig it Oh, let’s dig it Can you dig it, baby? ♫ Song: Grazing In The Grass. Artist: The Friends of Distinction. Songwriter: Philemon Hou.
Desperate situations will either make you do desperate acts or allow you to do creative acts.
Desperation: Sore and scared, she looked upward. It was a long, long way up. She needed a plan.
The only way out of a hole is to climb out. Cheryl Strayed
Professor Simon thought she would simply climb her way out of the hole.
She got an idea. “I can dig it… I can dig foot holds into the dirt and just climb my way out.”
She dug two, six-inch-deep indentations using her hands. The soil was too easy to excavate, and she knew it wasn’t going to hold her weight. Regardless, she then placed her foot in the first rung and attempted to climb out.
The soft dirt rungs gave way. It would not work.
All she had to show for her efforts was a two-inch pile of dirt around her shoes.
She was becoming desperate. She needed another way.
Professor Simon thought, “Nobody will even know I am missing until Monday at the earliest when I don’t show up to teach. Then it will take another day or two, if at all, before they begin to look for me. But nobody knows where I went.”
She thought about her brother. How she may never see him again. Here she is stuck in a hole, and there he is, in another country, digging a hole.
The seed of inspiration may sometimes be external, but the act of inspiration is always internal.
She looked down at her feet again and saw faint indentations as her tears fell. Then, the earth on her shoes gave her an inspirational idea.
Keep digging?
Professor Simon then thought, “I can use my pail! I can dig my way out of this hole!”
She took her pail and began to scoop the soil. Dirt fell from the walls and slowly began to cover her shoes.
And raise the floor.
She thought, “This may take forever, but I can raise the floor. I can slope the dirt slowly against the outhouse wall.” She began to furiously use her pail to dig the side of the hole.
After 15-minutes, the floor of the outhouse was 6-inches closer to her freedom. The hole was wider, but she was closer to the top. She had to be careful of overhanging dirt, but that would help raise the floor as well.
The struggle itself towards the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus.
It was almost sunset and enough dirt had fallen onto the floor. Her desperation had given way to a new strategy. A new awareness. A new appreciation.
She climbed out of the hole.
She thought today was going to be an exploration of people who lived on the farm. It turned out to be a lesson in how her exploration became her desperation which led to her inspiration.
Although dirty, muddy, and sweaty, she jumped into her truck and turned the radio up.
♫ Gonna keep on tryin’ ’Til I reach my highest ground ♫ Song: Higher Ground. Artist: Stevie Wonder. Songwriter: Stevie Wonder.
She learned many lessons…
When you find yourself at the bottom of a hole, keep digging!
The hole is your beginning, not your end.
Unsuccessful people see a hole as the end, a shortcoming, a failure, an obstacle, something others can ridicule.
Successful people see a hole as the beginning, a lesson, an opportunity. As something they will be proud of as they overcome the challenges of life.
The bottom of the hole is your springboard, not your final resting place.
Unsuccessful people can see the bottom of a hole as a place to quit, to give up, to die.
Successful people see the bottom of a hole as bedrock, a foundation, a tool, an opportunity, and a starting point toward growth and success.
Successful people see life as not what happens to them, but as what they do with what happens to them.
Professor Simon learned a lot that day. About the treasures that adversity can offer. About life and about herself.
And for that, she was appreciative.
This is the first part about the holes in life: When You Find Yourself Deep In A Hole — Keep Digging.