I was told to sprint up a down escalator.
I was told that when I got to the top, I would be glad I had.
So I got to running.
Some days I felt great about it – even passed a couple of people. Other days it felt like I just wasn’t running fast enough. And my legs were getting pretty tired. Was this really the only way? When I thought about what I was doing….really thought about it….it made zero sense.
One day I heard a whisper that someone had found another way. We didn’t have to keep running up the down escalator.
The day I actually believed the whisper and stopped running was the best day of my life.
I rode the down escalator all the way to the bottom.
True, it was pretty scary to descend below the milestones I’d sweated past.
If I was wrong and there really was no other way, I’d be screwed.
But when I got to the bottom of the escalator there was a man. His arms were open. I as thirsty so he gave me water. And he led me to an elevator.
I was afraid of the elevator because it was dark inside. I asked him if the elevator was going to the place at the top of the escalator, but all he said was “I will be with you”.
He pushed a button and took me to a new floor. And another floor. Again and again we rode the elevator.
Some of the floors were wonderful – friends, parties, feasting… But regardless, when he beckoned me back to the elevator, I followed.
On one floor I stepped out of the elevator onto a stage. Before me were crowds of people. “Speak” he said, and he laid down notes on the podium for me. So I spoke.
Back to the elevator.
Once we stepped out into the wing of a hospital. A young girl was there with burns all over her face. “Touch” he said, so I held her hand.
Back to the elevator.
There were floors I felt overqualified for, and floors I felt underqualified for. There were floors that I loved and floors that I hated. Sometimes I even wished I was back on the down escalator.
But every now and then a floor we stopped on would be intersected by the escalator. I recognized some of the people still running on the escalator.
And the whole idea of running up a down escalator made no sense to me anymore.
