Do What You Can, But Do

Within Reason And Ability

“You say you can’t do something, and you start putting nails in your coffin pretty quickly.” ~ George Etzweiler

Last Sunday, the Etzweiler family honored me with a digital invite to the memorial service of George Etzweiler, the Mount Washington runner I wrote about for my book “The White Mountain.”

George passed away at the extraordinary age of 105. Even though I met him in person only a handful of times, I considered him a friend. I met him the first time only weeks after my father passed and, even if he didn’t know it at the time, he became my dad for that run up Mt. Washington we did together.

Bob Etzweiler, George’s grandson, gives a hilarious and heartfelt eulogy for his grandfather

Anyway, the service was packed, as was the ZOOM portal. Usually, a 105-year-old would have outlived most of his family and friends. George did outlive them, but there were so many because so many people of all ages looked up to him. During the part of the service where attendees could speak about George, everyone talked about how inspirational he could be. And it’s not just because he COULD do anything, as the quote above implies.

It’s because his optimism was also pragmatic. He understood - very clearly - that he was old. “Like, really old!” his grandson Bob joked. So he’d look at a problem not through the lens of ‘I can accomplish anything’ but ‘What can I accomplish given my situation and limitations.’

I feel like that’s a deeply Yankee way of looking at things. Can I run a marathon, will I be able to ever run one again? Maybe not. But can I work to get myself to a place where I run a mile? A 5k? Sure, I can do that.

When George says to not say no, what he really meant was to figure out a way to do… something. Move forward. Even if you’re slow. Even if it hurts. Even if you’re not setting any records. Wake up, have your coffee, and do… something.

So my friends, as we approach the first weekend of June, what will you do? What - within reason and ability - can you accomplish this weekend?

For me, there’s a short story I’ve been meaning to find time to read. I’ve been trying to restock and reorder our Little Free Library so I’ll grab Little Bean to do that. And I’m going to see if I can gather the fam together to do a quicky rail trail walk as well.

How about you?

The one time Little Bean met George. At the time of this picture, George was about a half century older than me and Little Bean was about a half century younger!