Ted Rupe: Consider This an Opportunity, Like Isaac Newton
Ted Rupe, a noted runner, race director, retired teacher and coach, is hanging tough. You can read more about Ted at his Facebook page.
What are some ways the COVID-19 outbreak has changed your work life?
It has had minimal effect on my daily routine compared to most others. I do help direct and time numerous area races so that area of my life has been shut down completely.
How about your personal life?
It seems that the changes in a person’s lifestyle due to the virus fall mainly into two categories – those that need to step up and those that need to step back.
The essential workers and of course especially those in the medical field are being called on to step up and battle this pandemic while placing themselves and their families at risk of infection. I spend a great deal of time empathizing with their plight. Thanks to all of these essential workers!
The non-essential workers have been asked to step back. And that is both necessary but difficult. Necessary to help contain the spread of the virus… but difficult because it is so different from our normal routines.
What advice are you sharing with the people you love?
If I have any advice to offer everyone involved in this new reality… whether you are a step-up or step-back person, it would be this… Whether we like it or not, God occasionally shuffles the deck in our lives. Often this occurs just when we have settled into a comfortable routine. But that is the point. Life is both too short and too precious to succumb to the complacency of routines. These days offer us an invaluable opportunity to explore new opportunities and to create new ideas.
For the step-up people this is a time to help people in need as you may never be called upon to do the rest of your lives. It is a time that you will tell your grandchildren about with great pride when they ask about the COVID-19 virus and what you did to help.
For the step-back people, this might be our biggest opportunity to embrace family and create family traditions that will be memorable to especially the children as we pass beyond this strange time. It is a time to make To Do lists and get them done. It is a time to do everything else that we have always said that we would do when we have the time. It is time to learn the new skills that we always wanted to learn when we have the time.
During the great plague of London in 1665, at just 23 years old, Sir Isaac Newton left Trinity College and went into self-quarantine on his family farm. In the year that he spent there he changed the world of science and mathematics by developing theories on light, motion, calculus and gravity. Instead of lamenting his misfortunes of having to be separated from his college, his classes and his friends, he used his time to improve his life and the life of others.
That is also the precise challenge for each of us.