Empty the Tank

 

Empty the Tank !

Emptying the tank when we are always obsessed for a full tank? Yessirrr, when you are in dire straits, when your back is against the wall, the only way to extricate yourself from the quagmire you are in right now is to empty your tank.

The end justifies the means, that's non-negotiable. It's never dishonorable reaching the finish line with an empty tank. Who cares. That's when you can beat your chest and blow your horn.

Was glued watching yesterday’s Game 5 of the NBA Finals when the Miami Heat had their back against the wall, when they were 48 minutes away from packing up their bags and leave the bubble site at Orlando, FL. And the LA Lakers meticulously prepared in detail the championship celebrations with their white and gold confetti readied to be emptied and strewn all over the court. Alas, the organization of the Arisons and Rileys stomped their foot down and blurted, ‘NOT SO FAST, man’. When the game’s final buzzer finally sounded off, the Miami Heat lived another day after they fought tooth and nail against the touted behemoths of the LA Lakers.

At the aftermath of Game 5, basketball gurus, analysts and naysayers were left scratching their head asking themselves: ‘what the f___’, what really happened? Why things that were supposed to happen didn’t and why something that should not happen did happen?

It’s EMPTYING THE TANK, dude. That’s when you summon all your energy and fuel to stave off the big ‘D’. Who needs the big ‘D’? Death and Defeat? Not one of us. But’s that what the Miami Heat did yesterday, to stave off death and defeat and live another day. Jimmy Butler, their unheralded leader, rested only for 47secs within the 48-minute hoops finals. And with over a minute left, all the cameras caught him catching for breath, gasping for breath on the sidelines when the ball went out of bounds. But who won’t gasp for breath if you are up against the wall, when you are up against the Lebron and AD, the NBA’s most feared duo today! But who had the last laugh, it’s the rag tag group of Jimmy, the swagger Tyler Herro, the sweet-shooting Duncan Robinson and the turnaround resurrection of K. Nunn.

Back to our lives. When do we empty our tank? It’s when the big ‘D’ is starkly staring at you! When you’re about to be crushed to death in defeat, when the crumbling pieces will become nothing but rubbles from your imminent defeat, a defeat you defiantly refuse to have but here you are, facing it ignominiously.

WTD? In real terms, you gotta do a turnaround. And that turnaround time must happen then and there. And that turnaround will likely be sharp and sudden. Could even be a 180-degree turnaround, doing what it takes to stave off that impending defeat you fear to happen.

If you are that pilot now airborne who just triggered off a ‘mayday call’, that means you gotta DUMP THE FUEL! Why? For emergency landings, dumping unburnt fuel is the first recourse to ease things out in your emergency landing.

Back to our lives. Get back to our feet. What’s that old adage? Always aim for the sky, go for the sky, shoot for the ceiling, dream for the best. These days, especially during this long-drawn pandemic, there is no room for the lazy brats, the laid-backs, the back-riders, the loafers, the sloths, the sluggish, the lethargic, the idles and the inerts. Take it from Paul Brandt, the Canadian musician who said, “Don’t tell me the sky is the limit when there are footprints on the moon”.