Sometimes you make a typo and it’s embarrassing.
Sometimes it’s accidentally inspiring.
Occasionally it’s both.
In January of this year, we were chatting online in our writers’ group the Storytellers Network about what we were trying to accomplish on that particular day.
One of our writers talked about needing to submit an article for publication but feeling hesitant—as we all do sometimes.
A few hours later, she checked back in to let us know she’d followed through and submitted her article.
I tried to congratulate her, but autocorrect took over, and I didn’t notice until I’d already hit send.
Within days, this typo had become a favorite new in-joke, a meme, and a serviceable shorthand for a very real writers’ dilemma.
The Turtle of Overcoming had been born.
For me, one of the appeals of The Turtle of Overcoming is that I spent decades living in South Florida, where to be a resident along the coast is to be aware of the plight of the sea turtle.
All five species of Florida sea turtles are currently endangered or threatened, with only one in a thousand turtle hatchlings survive to adulthood.
Hatchlings die of dehydration if they don't make it to the ocean fast enough. Birds, crabs, and other animals also prey on the young turtles. (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission)
What a perfect metaphor for the writing life.
You can have a clutch of exciting ideas nesting in your brain, but the incubation process is often unkind. Like sea turtles, fledgling ideas die if they aren’t nurtured.
Doubt, discouragement, frustration, negative feedback, and even our own inner critics threaten to tear our ideas apart—sometimes before they even get a chance to make it to freedom in the open waters.
Of course, as a writer who runs, I have another connection to the Turtle of Overcoming.
I run long distances, low and slow, often referring to my approach as “Turtle Running.” This isn’t so much to throw shade on my speed but to highlight the overlap between my running life and the lesson of the fabled Tortoise and the Hare:
The race is not always to the swift.
Which really is good news, both in running and writing.
In both disciplines, my competition is not so much with other runners or other writers but with myself.
Do I have what it takes to stay in the race—to keep showing up at the keyboard—until I’ve crossed the finish line, however long that takes?
The race, indeed, is not to the swift.
The race is to those who, after managing to chip out of their shells, spend days digging themselves from the deep holes of sand in which they’ve been quietly incubating. Who, with only instinct guiding them, emerge onto the surface and begin flailing their tiny way across the sand toward the sea, dodging the birds, lizards, and ghost crabs who would mercilessly rip them to shreds. Once among the rolling breakers, they paddle furiously, desperate to outswim even more predators as they make their way toward open waters.
One in a thousand will survive.
The race is not to the swift but to the resilient.
It’s to the Turtles of Overcoming.
For more on this, check out fellow storyteller Amy’s post “Overcome Like a Turtle.”
If this message resonates with you as it did with us, rejoice.
We have turtle merch!
The Turtle of Overcoming tees, hoodies, crewnecks and totes are available—and also stickers via Amy’s post.
Let’s show the world we’re overcomers.
Amy Sondova also did a turtle-related post at her Substack (which mentions your story), and the two hit my inbox about the same time. When I opened e-mail this morning and saw two turtle-related newsletters back to back, I thought I was hallucinating. :-)
Love it!