Moving the Chains: YET

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A member of our family recently had a stroke that left her paralyzed – at least temporarily – on the left side of her body.   She couldn’t move her arm or leg and could hardly speak.  Initially doctors weren’t optimistic that anything would ever change.  The stroke was devastating, especially for a woman who had just celebrated her 80^th birthday.      

That was then.  

Recently Cindy and I had the opportunity to visit and check in on her progress.  Sitting in her wheelchair, she began lifting her left leg up and down.  Considering the gloomy prognosis she was originally given, her progress was incredible.  She said she would need a brace for support because she didn’t have the strength in her leg to put any weight on it.  

Then she smiled and said she still wasn’t able to walk.

Yet.

On the drive home, I couldn’t stop thinking about how positive that word could be.  It’s amazing how just three letters can be the epitome of optimism.   

Imagine some of the things people say in everyday conversation. ‘ I haven’t lost any weight on my diet.’  ‘My husband didn’t get that promotion at work.’  ‘Our son doesn’t have a hit in T-ball.’  

They all sound sort of negative, don’t they?  Now add one more word at the end of each sentence.  You know the one I’m talking about: it  has three letters.

Just like that: instant optimism.  

Many years ago when the Brooklyn Dodgers were losing one World Series after another to the New York Yankees, the team in blue came up with a rallying cry: ‘Wait till next year.’    

 Now let’s try saying it another way.  ‘We haven’t won the World Series yet.’

Not this year, but maybe next.  Or perhaps the one after that.  But without a doubt, one day it will happen.   

At one point in time the New York Mets were the laughing stock of major league baseball.  In their first seven years of existence, they never had a winning season, cumulatively losing more than 70% of their games.  Undeterred, the Amazin’ Mets found a way to beat the heavily-favored Baltimore Orioles in five games in the 1969 World Series.  

In 1962, the first-year Mets didn’t win the World Series.  Same goes for the 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, and 1967 teams.  But when that 1968 team finished with the franchise’s seventh consecutive losing season and promised that things would change next season, that 1969 would be their year, that they just might win it all … well, just wait till next year.  Because we haven’t won the World Series.  

Yet.  

Consider the Indiana football team.  Prior to Curt Cignetti taking over as head coach in 2024, in their first 125 seasons the Hoosiers only won 42% of their games and had only played in a dozen bowls games, nine of which they lost.  In Cignetti’s first two seasons, the Hoosiers have already won 27 of their 29 games.  In other words, they’ve won 93% of their games, a vast improvement from the previous 125 years.  And, of course, 16 of those wins occurred in 2025, when they didn’t lose a single game.  

And, less we forget, in 2025 the Hoosiers won their first National Championship.

Prior to that, 126 seasons all ended with fans hoping that next year would be their year.

 Because ever since that first season back in 1899, they had never been the best team in the country.

Yet.  

Three letters.  All the optimism you ever need. 

As for that member of the family I mentioned earlier?  She’s walking again.