Tim Hague Sr. shares a key take away from competing in The Amazing Race Canada.
10,000 applicants, seven provinces, three territories, 23,000 km traveled, eight other highly competitive teams, navigationally challenged, Parkinson’s. How does one go about winning the inaugural The Amazing Race Canada? I’m not sure I know how to answer that question entirely but I do know that it requires a fair bit of muscle, a bit of smarts and a fair bit of what some would call luck but I’ll refer to as blessing. Clearly Someone had our back!
So having had the opportunity to participate in something that is a once in a lifetime, if not multiple lifetime opportunity, what does one take away from it? Well, one is having Parkinson’s and trying to climb a mountain is not fun. Yes it’s true, Parkinson’s impacted my race, sometimes significantly. However, there are three salient truths I take away from the race in regards to this line of discussion. One is, in the long-term, without a cure, Parkinson’s will win this war that I battle with it. I’m OK with that. I know my ultimate home. Two, Parkinson’s does slow me down. It impacts my life, it impacted my race and it makes life slower than I would otherwise like it. Three we none-the-less won The Amazing Race Canada with Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s could not take this opportunity away from me and it did not prevent us from winning. Therefore, I am determined to not let it take an ounce of my life today. What it ‘wins’ tomorrow is not important but what I win today is. And, really, does it ever actually win? 2 Corinthians 5:8.
Then there’s the intriguing thought of how a marriage wins The Amazing Race Canada. Now, you know that Tim Jr. and I did all the heavy lifting on this (insert laugh track) but the brains of the team stayed at home in Winnipeg! Sheryl has been an avid fan of the show and prior to our leaving she had us studying all kinds of hopefully relevant trivia which included flags and flowers. Thus, her knowledge and encouragement to be prepared even before leaving proved vital to our overall success. So, in fact you could say we were effectively a three person team.
Now, how effectively do you listen to your spouse? I think there is a fascinating analogy here for how marriage is intended to work. My spouse, help mate, team mate, wife, made an invaluable contribution to our overall success even though she never ran a leg of the race. When it was said, “and the two will become one” (Genesis 2:24), I think this is a bit of what was in mind. The two are still two; independent in thought, action, ability, autonomy, but now one in life, partnership and direction. What if I had chosen ‘to be my own man’ and ignore the advice of my wife? What if she had felt that this was ‘their thing’ and chose to not be involved? By participating together on the same team (marriage) yet in very different roles we have experienced success together.
These are two of my favorite takeaways from The Race. I could regale you with tales of muktuk, dogsleds, zoo’s, navigational errors and the like, but I will leave you with these thoughts; we consider ourselves to be so incredibly blessed in life and so much more for having been given this experience. What a complete joy it was to run with my son and to win with him. It’s truly more than a father could hope for.
A heartfelt thanks to WRBC! The outpouring of support and encouragement has been wonderful. You make it so easy and delightful for us to call this place home.
