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| Tony Ramos - Publisher |
Perseverance
To say that “The Blind Side” (W.W. Norton, 2006), written by Michael Lewis—and the movie adaptation of the book, starring Sandra Bullock—are about football is like saying that Neil Armstrong’s landing on the moon is about three guys who took a plane ride. “The Blind Side” is so much more than just a story about football. It’s about overcoming the odds, it’s about people who care, and at its core, it’s about perseverance.
Michael Oher, the main character in “The Blind Side,” was brought up intermittently by a drug-addicted mother. His father, with whom he never had contact, was a resident of one of Tennessee’s federal correctional facilities. Oher grew up, literally, on the streets of East Memphis, Tennessee, which rivals any city in the United States for the unceremonious title of the worst place to visit or live.
Oher had every reason to wind up as just another bad statistic. Instead, based on his personal perseverance and the perseverance of others who crossed his path, Oher developed into a fine young man who can now be seen on television—playing professional football, as an offensive lineman for the Baltimore Ravens.
Instrumental components in keeping Oher from becoming a poster child for the end result of a radically dysfunctional upbringing were Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy and their two children, Sean Jr. and Collins. The Tuohys—a wealthy, loving, and giving family living on the right side of the tracks in Memphis—reached out to help Oher when he was 16 years old, and they became his legal guardians a year later.
Taking into consideration what they faced when they first met Oher and when they eventually took him into their home and made him part of their family (Oher calls Leigh Anne “Mama”), it took more than just money, love, and a servant’s heart to make things work. It took a truckload of perseverance on the parts of the Tuohys and Oher.
In a newly released motivational book by a New York Times best-selling author, the author recounts the story of an executive and a not-so-attractive print hanging in his office.
From the book:
A friend told me a story about an executive who had an interesting print hanging in his office. It depicted a large rowboat stranded on a beach. Two oars rested gently in the sand, with the ocean at low tide twenty or thirty feet behind it. The boat looked too heavy to drag, too big to move. It was just stuck there in the sand.
The picture wasn’t a thing of beauty. It wasn’t inspiring. In fact, it was depressing. Here was this boat created for the water, a very nice boat to dance on top of the ocean waves, stuck in the sand.
But at the very bottom of the picture was a small caption that gave meaning to the otherwise unremarkable picture. It read: ‘The tide always comes back.’
With that simple caption, the print took on new meaning: When the tide returned, that stranded boat once again would find its purpose. It would return to the place it was meant to be.
My friend told me that the executive once had gone through a great disappointment. He didn’t think he would ever be happy again. Then he saw the painting at a small antique store and bought it for a just a few dollars. Every time he looked at it, he said to himself: ‘The tide is coming back.’
That print spoke faith into his heart. The caption gave him hope that things would change in his favor.
Perseverance: The tide is coming back.
Tony Ramos
Publisher
tramos@peninsula-media.com
PHPR November/December 2009
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