While trying to come up with a meaningful topic for the morning, I spent a while online tracking my friend Ben finishing the Charlottesville Marathon.

Several miles from the finish line, he was being paced by the women’s leader of the race, and he was slowly creeping closer to her. It was good drama, leaving me wondering if he would close the gap and catch her. A few miles passed, and he seemed to be within reach of her as they plodded through the 23rd and 24th miles. Over the last few miles, though, she held him at bay by a tenth of a mile, until in the last half of a mile he bonked and the gap mildly opened.

And then she finished the race, and then he did.

Thinking about his performance and how that little competition with the women’s leader played out, I reflected. I could have just made his run about his ability to catch the gal who was right in front of him, and used that as a measure of success for his race, as though that was the point of his efforts.

When the race started, though, I am pretty sure his goal was not to simply chase and pass Lisa Gillette.

When we’re watching the race, it’s so easy to get caught up in the drama.

That is part of what makes life interesting and arresting for us. Drama happens. Some of it is good, and some of it is bad.

Most of the time though, in the big picture, drama is often distraction.

At this moment in the young 2019 major league baseball season, I am the fan of a 1 and 6 Chicago Cubs club.

This ball team is made up largely of a core who not only have gone 387-261 in the prior four seasons under Joe Maddon (60% winning percentage), but have also won their division twice and won the World Series within the last three years. This team was supposed to be a dynasty in the making after the sparkling 2016 season. It remained super-competitive and superlative in 2017 and 2018.

The Cubs now, seven games into the 2019 season, have given up 59 runs to their opponents (8.4 runs a game), rank second in the MLB in errors committed (11), and rank dead last in team ERA (7.85).

By all accounts, a snapshot at this moment says that this Cubs team is horrible.

But this moment is now. The team still has 155 regular season games to play- and the goal for it is to win enough when the regular season ends.

The blown saves, the six-error game last week, the erratic nature of the offense’s bats- those instances make for drama along the way in a young young season.

But daily drama in not the same as final results.

I went to a Lobo baseball game with my friend Paul midweek last week. It was a rough ride for the Lobos, who suffered a 9-run battering in one early inning at the hands of a powerful Texas Tech offense. As the game progressed into the late innings and the air cooled down at the park, the crowd dwindled a bit, and for those of us who stayed, it was an exercise in futile support. The crowd was mostly quiet, feeling the weight of Tech’s big lead and the ineffectiveness of Lobo bats. Sitting alone in the bleachers behind the plate, about 10 rows up, though, was a thin gray-haired fan in a Where’s Waldo striped touk who, despite the Lobos deficit, was indifferent to their situation. He lobbed baseball banter at the players and the plate umpire alike, with the mellow affection of a semi-conscious fan.

“Come on, Blue- that pitch was in the batters box.”

“You got this.”

“Hit that gap in left-center field.”

“Come on, Blue- the game isn’t over yet. You still have to make calls.”

“Rip, rip, rip!”

The man made Lobo fans chuckle from time to time as he maintained a steady one-sided conversation with the people at the plate. Paul and I joined in chuckling at comments here and there, as he became more entertaining than the game.

“Nothing to it but to do it!”

More chuckles. I share a wry laugh with Paul about that silly simple suggestion the man offered the current kid at the plate. I mock it in my mind. I joke about it with Paul as the seventh inning ends and the eighth starts, and then ends.

We leave the game at the end of the eight as the Lobos are en route to a 15-6 beat down by Tech.

I forget pretty immediately what actually happened in that game, but as I drive home, I think about the man and his cheers.

And specifically the one I dismissed as silly.

“Nothing to it but to do it.”

I realize he said a very wise thing.

There is so much drama in life- good and bad. But drama is what occurs in the doing.

Accomplishment is what occurs when the doing is done.

And the doing is done when we know where we are going, when we know what we are trying to achieve or complete- whether it is a necessary task we much finish, or a goal we are trying to meet.

Purpose is defined by the ends that drive us, not by the dramas that detour us.

The purpose of a Major League baseball team is to win enough games during the regular season to have a chance to play for the division and league championships at the season’s end.

The purpose of a marathon runner in a race is complete 26.2 miles.

The purpose of any pursuit is know and to reach its end.

“Nothing to it but to do it.”

At one point in my early thirties, I began reading Covey’s famous book, “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. I liked what I read of it, but I didn’t finish it. I think I got through a third of it. But I did take away a life-affecting nugget from it, about thinking and planning and living.

“Begin with the end in mind.”

And to this effect, know what ends you are chasing.

It’s good wisdom for planning a project, or preparing for a marathon, or for simply making decisions in your life.

A good project, a good run, and a good life all have one thing in common: knowing where their ends were, one plans to finish them well.

And when you know what the end goal is for yourself, next steps become self-apparent.

“Nothing to it but to do it.”

The ends clarify the means.

Ben finished his marathon averaging 8 minute miles, coming in 17th among the men runners.

The Lobos, down early again to Tech the next day in a day game, rallied late to show the #11 Red Raiders they also had something to say about winning.

The Cubs have played 4% of their 2019 season.

It’s not over until it is over.

Until then, keep your eye on the end.