Unfinished Business...By Carol Stewart What is your unique form of unfinished business? Matt shared his with us last month when he wrote about his feelings about doing “just” the Ascent. (Maybe if there was no marathon the next day, none of us Ascenters would feel compelled to add the “just.”) Matt is not the only one with unfinished business. I may not feel cheated if I run the Ascent year after year. But I do feel cheated if I don’t finish my laps at the pool. Forty-eight laps, three times a week-no less will do. Not 40, and certainly not 36. Even if I am short of time, it’s 48 laps. I’d rather be late then cheat myself by shortening my workout. Sure, my body won’t fall apart within two seconds of leaving the water if I swim short, but my mind rebels at the very thought. NO UNFINISHED BUSINESS is allowed at the YMCA pool!! I decided to talk with others about this idea of unfinished business. The threat of Mom going ballistic because chores haven’t been done in three days will not budge my 17 year old daughter from the most comfortable chair in the living room. Her unfinished business -a book that needs to be finished before anything else is attended to. She cannot leave a book unattended, and unfinished. Why can’t the book wait? Will the print vanish after a certain time? No-she just does not like unfinished business. Ask a golfer to play 14 holes of golf and you’ll get a mighty strange look. It takes 18 holes to complete a round of golf. A dedicated player would never stop in the middle. Thunderstorms, hailstorms, sandstorms-golfers must have the patience of saints; they can be seen on the golf courses around town, waiting out these weather nuances rather than stop before the eighteenth hole. Why do they need to play 18 holes before the round is finished? How about people who are addicted to crossword puzzles? Every Sunday morning, my parents spend hours filling in every blank in their paper’s crossword puzzle. My father has all his reference books piled high on the kitchen table before a puzzle is done. Only when every little square is filled with a letter, is lunch served. Their business is finished. Occasionally I look at a crossword puzzle and try to answer a few clues. I end up walking away from a mostly unfilled puzzle; it does not bother me. But I can’t swim only 46 laps at the pool. We each have our own brand of unfinished business. Bill Ebersohl likes to bowl as a change of pace from his running. He told me that whenever he bowls, it does not feel right unless he has played a multiple of three games. It’s too uncomfortable to end a bowling session after 2, 5 or even 8 games. Bowlers bowl in sets of three games to complete a round. An incomplete round of bowling is certainly unfinished business. Think for a few moments, maybe you can find your own brand of unfinished business: activities that can not be put aside until you have reached what you consider the end point. This end point may not be meaningful to anyone else but you. You may even drive others around you crazy in your insistence on reaching the end. Examples that come to my mind: needing to run a certain distance in order for a workout to be complete; a pan of brownies that cannot be left half eaten on the kitchen counter. Do you drive every one nuts while you go crazy cleaning the house from top to bottom, barely pausing for a breath of fresh air? And are you sometimes amazed that leaving a piece of business unfinished can be so disturbing, can feel so much like cheating? In many cases the only person who is upset is ourself. Not everyone needs to run the entire Pikes Peak Marathon, but for some of us doing anything less is unfinished business. And that is OK-as long as I get to finish my 48 laps, three times a week at the pool!
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