Damned if you do, damned if you don't

Imagine yourselves pusing a trolley up-hill. The trolley is heavy, but you can push it and you really want to get home with it more than anything in the world. You've been climbing the hill for a while when you trip over and fall. The first time doesn't really matter. Your will to get home with the trolley is too strong. You get up and keep walking even though you scraped your knee.

A while later your arms start to ache and then you trip over again. The scraped knee gets bashed again and now the other one, too. The trolley was getting heavy by now, but you still want to get it home. Getting up is a little harder now, as your knees hurt and the arms have not rested, but you get up nonetheless.

The street still climbs up in an endless hill and you see up ahead that the pavement has some loose pieces that may be treacherous. But, actually, this is the only road home, so you carry on regardless of the pain on your knees, the pain in your arms and that dull ache at the end of your back. You've been pushing the trolley for a while and tiredness is setting in.

And yes, once again you trip over. Both knees are hurt, open, your arms are in pain and so is your back. And you're tired... so tired... And the trolly weighs so much... so much...

But you really really want to get the trolley home. It's the only thing that matters. And there is no other road. When is it right to decide it's enough? That there are enough scrapes, bumbs and bruises and that the trolley is really too heavy to take home? When is it right to decide it is better to abandon that trolley and try to find a new one possibly closer?

This, of course, means throwing away all the effort and disregard the walk so far...

But the trolley is what is important. To get home with it is the only thing that matters.

How do you do it?