A young woman named Florence Chadwick attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast in 1952 in an attempt to set a record for covering that distance. When she entered the water, a heavy fog had settled itself on the path before her. Blinded by fog, she became disoriented and discouraged and gave up. When she finally decided she couldn’t go on, her escorts in a boat helped her out of the water. The escorts feared to tell her the truth – Florence was less than 300 yards from the goal. Her only reply after learning how close she actually came was, ‘All I could see was hopeless.’ Her clouded vision kept her from
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