CELEBRATING THE VICTORIES

DECEMBER 31, 2025 – With the close-out of 2025, I’d like to underscore the importance of celebrating the victories, not lamenting the defeats. If you share my politics, you’re likely to call me Pollyannaish, and from one valid perspective, I plead guilty as charged. On the other hand, to stay afloat psychologically in this troubled world, a person needs to take a multi-dimensional approach to life, and in these times especially, that means seizing the positive from the jaws of the negative.

Perhaps a more realistic and practical way of viewing this “imperative of the positive” is to look at life’s challenges wholistically and systematically—one might say strategically—to navigate successfully between the constants of Scylla and Charybdis. There’s no way—on earth, anyway—that the monster and the whirlpool can be eliminated, so instead, we need to figure out ways of adapting, plying fraught waters as best we can for as long as we can. Over time, I’ve found that as important as a compass (vision), a rudder (principles), and wind in the sails (initiative converted into momentum) is the lean jaw of the helmsperson (confidence). And confidence is kindled and rekindled by “Hoorahs!” of the crew (celebration of the victories), especially against the omnipresent wind, waves, thunder and lightning.

Take the state of our nation, for example. Enough wreckage has occurred over the past year to rival any year in American history—albeit with some notably epic exceptions. But in keeping with that history, we’re still standing, however much shocked and scarred we might be or feel. That’s no less a victory worth celebrating than the Union victory at Gettysburg, despite the horrific price.

On a more personal level, I have many victories to celebrate: our family’s avoidance of an unequivocal catastrophe, for example, when my wife survived her Great Fall from garage attic to garage floor without landing in a cast, a wheelchair, a TBD unit of a nursing home or . . . worse.

Another example of victory is the realization of a whim: completion of the “Pergola-on-a-Platform” on the summit ridge of the tree garden up at the lake. After countless hours of design and countless more in construction, what had evolved on graph paper in a sketchbook finally came to fruition. Against the many challenges, the project qualifies as victory over self-doubt; another victory to be celebrated.

Then came the play, How the Grinch Stole [the Show], and all its symbolism; a production we enjoyed yesterday evening with our granddaughter, Illiana. For reasons known to insiders, the denouement of the story portends better days ahead. In the precious moments of the play itself (Children’s Theater Company – How the Grinch Stole Christmas), we were treated to an outstanding performance by Reed Sigmund in the title role. At the finish, Beth and I got to see Illiana punch her hands straight up overhead in victory—her own and ours; a victory we celebrated together with an “all you can eat” session at Sushi Train in downtown Minneapolis. Watching her demonstrate her remarkable artistic talent on the “chalk art” wall of the restaurant was another victory to cheer. This victory was matched by another on the ride back to her house: “Grandpa,” she said in response to my remark about the importance of reading, “math is now my favorite subject.” For a kid who to this point has feared and resisted math, this statement was its own little victory.

These victories late yesterday were rendered even sweeter by the victory that had proceeded them. For the past two months what had weighed heavily on my list of worries was a disturbing test indicator for cancer—separate from the cancer I must already manage, control, suppress. Initially, the process for scheduling a biopsy and potential treatment was to be stretched over months. By rigging the sails properly (initiative to generate momentum), I accelerated the process down to less than two months, concluding with a consultative appointment yesterday to go over the biopsy results. Girded for “a challenge,” I received remarkable news: NEGATIVE—in fact, so clearly so, there was no sign even of pre-cancer. With clearance of the latest nautical threat faced by Odysseus in the Strait of Messina, I had every reason to celebrate another victory.

But how to celebrate these and many other daily victories? By giving gratitude. And how to do that? By making every waking moment count for something—today, tomorrow, next year and for as long thereafter as the fates—and the compass, the rudder, and wind in the sails—allow me to survive another passage past Scylla and Charybdis.

Subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© 2025 by Eric Nilsson