Of the many voids in my life, there is one of particular of annoyance: incessancy. Though quite obstinate, even unreasonably at other times, I lack this specific virtue in the little things and events that constitute normal everydayness.

How many books have I started and not finished? My library is a testament to the volumes of information that I once desired to seek. There are myriads of books with bookmarks in them about halfway through chapter two.

How many CD’s and MP3’s have I bought and never listened to? Alas, I even have cassette tapes that still have shrinkwrap!

How many photographs have I taken and never developed/printed/framed? Thanks to digitalization, this can now take place on my screen, but my walls are still white and bare.

How many cans of exotic vegetables, bottles of rare spices, and boxes of healthy carbohydrates have I been inspired to transform into Food Network-worthy masterpieces? Nevertheless, they sit still processed in my geriatrically-scented cupboard.

How many projects have been started, but abandoned as “pending further research?” How many journals and logs have been left undated all except the first two pages? How many?

Indeed, incessancy is a virtue. For even the ancient Greeks held a special race during their Olympics. We all know about races of long distance, speed, and endurance. But there was one where the victory was not bestowed based on these terms. But rather, the victor was one who finished the race with his torch still lit. Undoubtedly, the torchrunners for this year’s Olympics would have lost in ancient Greece.

Basically, finish what you start.

232 years later, the American econopolitical experiment is still lit today. As this blog also starts on this fourth of July, my prayer is that this virtue of incessancy does not retrovert next to my tapedeck and Kodak, but rather manifests itself into also the bigger things and events of normal everydayness, even this blog.

“…I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do…” – Jesus (John 17:4)

“…I have finished the course, I have kept the faith…” – Paul (2 Tim 4:7)

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” Luke 14:28-30