Too often we see people who want to know, "What's in it for me" or "How much will you pay me to do it?" This story is about so much more than money. It's about making yourself proud of the work you have done because you know you've done it to the very best you could do. And yes, it's about doing the impossible - and who could ever place a price tag on that.
It's a powerful story - how do I know? Well, it has stuck with me for about 50 years and I'm still learning from it today.
The Countess and the Impossible
(As I remember it, The $5 Lawn)
No one in our Utah
"The countess always carried a cane not only for support but as a means of chastising any youngster she thought needed disciplining. And at one time or another most of the kids in our neighborhood seemed to display that need. By running fast and staying alert, I had managed to keep out of her reach. But one day when I was about thirteen, as I was short-cutting through her hedge, she got close enough to rap my head with her stick.
"'Ouch!' I yelled, jumping a couple of feet.
"'Young man, I want to talk to you,' she said. I was expecting a lecture on the evils of trespassing, but as she looked at me, half-smiling, she seemed to change her mind.
"'Don't you live in that green house with the willow trees in the next block?'
"'Yes, ma'am.' . . .
"'Good. I've lost my gardener. Be at my house Thursday morning at seven, and don't tell me you have something else to do; I've seen you slouching around on Thursdays.'
"When the Countess gave an order, it was carried out. I didn't dare not come on that next Thursday. I went over the whole lawn three times with a mower before she was satisfied and then she had me down on all fours looking for weeds until my knees were as green as the grass. She finally called me up to the porch.
"'Well, young man, how much do you want for your day's work?'
"'I don't know. Fifty cents, maybe.'
"'Is that what you figure you're worth?"
"'Yes'm. About that.'
"'Very well. Here's the fifty cents you say you're worth and here's the dollar and a half more that I've earned for you by pushing you. Now I' m going to tell you something about how you and I are going to work together. There are as many ways of mowing a lawn as there are people, and they may be worth anywhere from a penny to five dollars. Let's say that a three-dollar job would be just what you have done today, except that you'd have to be something of a fool to spend that much time on a lawn. A five-dollar lawn is well, it's impossible, so we'll forget about that. Now then, each week I'm going to pay you according to your own evaluation of your work.'
"I left with my two dollars, richer than I remembered being in my whole life, and determined that I would get four dollars out of her the next week. But I failed to reach even the three dollar mark. My will began to falter the second time around her yard.
"'Two dollars again, eh? That kind of job puts you right on the edge of being dismissed, young man.'
"'Yes'm. But I'll do better next week.'
"And somehow I did. The last time around the lawn I was exhausted, but I found I could spur myself on. In the exhilaration of that new feeling, I had no hesitation in asking the Countess for three dollars.
"Each Thursday for the next four or five weeks, I varied between a three and a three-and-a-half dollar job. The more I became more acquainted with her lawn, places where the ground was a little high or a little low, places where it needed to be clipped short or left long on the edges to make a more satisfying curve along the garden, the more I became aware of just what a four-dollar lawn would consist of. And each week I would resolve to do just that kind of a job. But by the time I had made my three dollar or three and-a-half dollar mark I was too tired to remember even having had the ambition to go beyond that.
"'You look like a good consistent $3.50 man,' she would say as she handed me the money.
"'I guess so' I would say, too happy at the sight of the money to remember that I had shot for something higher.
"'Well don't feel too bad,' she would comfort me. 'After all, there are only a handful of people in the world who could do a four-dollar job.'
"And her words were a comfort at first, but then, without my noticing what was happening, her comfort became an irritant that made me resolve to do that four-dollar job, even if it killed me. In the fever of my resolve, I could see myself expiring on her lawn, with the Countess leaning over me, handing me the four dollars with a tear in her eye, begging my forgiveness
for having thought I couldn't do it.
for having thought I couldn't do it.
"It was in the middle of such a fever, one Thursday night when I was trying to forget the day's defeat and get some sleep, that the truth hit me so hard that I sat upright, half choking in my excitement. It was the five-dollar job I had to do, not the four-dollar one! I had to do the job that no one could do because it was impossible.
"I was well acquainted with the difficulties ahead. I had the problem, for example, of doing something about the worm mounds in the lawn. The Countess might not even have noticed them yet, they were so small; but in my bare feet I knew about them and I had to do something about them. And I could go on trimming the garden edges with shears, but I knew that a five-dollar lawn demanded that I line up each edge exactly with a yardstick and then trim it precisely with the edger. And there were other problems that only I and my bare feet knew about.
"I started the next Thursday by ironing out the worm mounds with a heavy roller. After two hours of that I was ready to give up for the day. Nine o'clock in the morning, and my will was already gone! It was only by accident that I discovered how to regain it. Sitting under a walnut tree for a few minutes after finishing the rolling, I fell asleep. When I woke up minutes later, the lawn looked so good and felt so good under my feet, I was anxious to get on with the job.
"I followed this secret for the rest of the day, dozing for a few minutes every hour to regain my perspective and replenish my strength. Between naps, I mowed four times, two times lengthwise, two times across, until the lawn looked like a green velvet checkerboard. Then I dug around every tree, crumbling the big clods and smoothing the soil with my hands, then finished with the edger, meticulously lining up each stroke so that the effect would be perfectly symmetrical. And I carefully trimmed the grass between the flagstones of the front walk. The shears wore my fingers raw, but the walk never looked better.
"Finally about eight o'clock that evening it was all completed. I was so proud I didn't even feel tired when I went up to her door.
"'Well, what is it today?' she asked.
"'Five dollars,' I said, trying for a little calm and sophistication.
"'Five dollars? You mean four dollars, don't you? I told you that a five-dollar lawn job isn't possible.'
"'Yes it is. I just did it.'
"'Well, young man, the first five-dollar lawn in history certainly deserves some looking around.'
"We walked about the lawn together in the light of evening, and even I was quite overcome by the impossibility of what I had done.
"'Young man, she said, putting her hand on my shoulder, 'what on earth made you do such a crazy, wonderful thing?'
"I didn't know why, but even if I had, I could not have explained it in the excitement of hearing that I had done it.
"'I think I know,' she continued, 'how you felt when this idea first came to you of caring for a lawn that I told you was impossible. It made you very happy when it first came, then a little frightened. Am I right?'
"She could see she was right by the startled look on my face.
"'I know how you felt because the same thing happens to almost everyone. They feel this sudden burst in them of wanting to do some great thing. They feel a wonderful happiness but then it passes because they have said, "No, I can't do that. It's impossible." Whenever something in you says, "It's impossible," remember to take a careful look and see if it isn't really God asking you to grow an inch, or a foot, or a mile, that you may come to a fuller life.' (Emphasis mine.)
"Since that time, some 25 years ago, when I have felt myself at an end with nothing before me, suddenly, with the appearance of that word, 'impossible,' I have experienced the unexpected lift, the leap inside me, and known that the only possible way lay through the very middle of impossible."
(Richard Thurman, "The Countess and the Impossible," Reader's Digest, June 1958.)
How many of us would have quit - said the old lady is crazy and unfair and selfish? How many of us would have short-circuited what God was doing in this boy's life by saying something along the lines of "It's okay, you tried so here's $5"? How many times in my own life have I done less than my best and said, "That's good enough." And how many times have I started and then given up because it was difficult?
Funny thing is, in my devotional time today I read about David fighting a battle (1 Samuel 30 - trust me, this all fits together) and the devotional made the point that "assured victory does not mean easy wins." God told David in advance he would "certainly overtake them and succeed in the rescue" but then we read that it was a difficult battle full of hard work, non-stop fighting over a 24 hour period, and over 400 escaped.
"God often gives us a victory that requires blood, sweat, and tears...When He can bring about a victory and strengthen and mature us all at the same time, He's likely to do it....God's idea of a victory has virtually nothing to do with plunder. It has to do with people. What comes out of a battle isn't nearly as important as who comes out of a battle." (Beth Moore, A Heart Like His study, page 81.)
During all that is going on in the world today, I believe God is working in us to achieve so much more than we see and I believe He will bring us through stronger and more mature than ever if we'll just let Him. It may not be easy, but it will definitely be worth it.
And that will be a story worth retelling.
Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash
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