The Huffington Post, an online magazine, had a story a couple of weeks ago about perseverance. Now, the dictionary built into my Mac defines perseverance as: continuing in a course of action even in the face of difficulty or with little or no prospect of success. The story was about a woman named Cha-Sa-soon, a citizen of South Korea. Here’s the tale:

Cha-Sa-soon, sixty-eight years young, decided she would reap more profits in her vegetable-selling business if she had a vehicle to get around in. But, of course, in order to get around in a vehicle, one needs to have a driver’s license.

Excited by the prospect of abandoning her pedestrian ways, she made her way to the driver’s license agency in her hometown of Jeonju, South Korea, filled out an application, and took the written exam. Regrettably, Ms. Cha failed the test.

But remember, this column is about perseverance.

Ms. Cha returned shortly thereafter to take the test again. She failed again. But, she persevered and returned to take the test again. And again. . . .  And now, it is my joy to inform you that Cha-Sa-soon finally passed the test. She received a grade of sixty percent on her 775th attempt. She kept going back, sometimes daily, until her perseverance paid off. Over four-and-a-half years she spent the equivalent of $4200 in application fees. That suggests that she must have been doing quite well in her vegetable-selling business prior to deciding a vehicle would improve her profits.

That’s quite a story. It strikes me that such a story is never played out in a vacuum. There are others involved, others who reacted to Ms. Cha, and others who, no doubt, were effected by her perseverance.

For example, I wonder what the lady who administered the exams thought of Ms. Cha. What about the bus driver who transported her to the agency every day? Will he miss her as she rides in her own vehicle? What about her family? Surely, there must have been at least one cousin who long since had told her to give it up. And what about her friends? Don’t you know they had a laugh or two at the expense of dear old, “addled” Sa-soon when they sat down for tea.

Cha-Sa-soon had perseverance. That’s for sure. She’s joined the ranks of the more famous who stuck to it. Old Noah took forever to build that ark while his neighbors laughed, but things turned out okay. Moses wandered around for forty years before he finally took a left and stumbled into the Promise Land. Elijah, when everyone else had defected, stuck to his beliefs until the prophets of Baal were reduced to a pile of smokey dust.

There’s a lesson here. Maybe we should stick to it a little longer before giving up. I know, after reading Ms. Cha’s story, I’m giving serious consideration to becoming proficient in hand gliding. What is it that you once thought you’d want to do but gave up along the way. Maybe you ought to go for it. Maybe you should persevere. It only took that South Korean vegetable lady 775 attempts. With your intelligence and capability, who knows how few more tries will bring success.

Oh, by the way, Cha-Sa-soon is still deep into perseverance. She’s passed that written test. Next is the actual driving exam.