RACING
TO DEATH

Topics: Balance; Control; Human Effort; Rest; Sabbath; Stress; Work

Reference: Mark 6:31

John Henry once raced a steam drill tunneling through a mountain. He beat the machine, only to fall dead from the superhuman effort.

Sherman James, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, named a syndrome after John Henry, saying people with it believe that anything can be conquered as long as you work hard enough. They are the ones who, when completing questionnaires, answer yes to statements such as, “When things don’t go the way I want, it just makes me work even harder,” or “Once I make up my mind to do something, I stay with it until the job is completely done.”

They believe that with enough effort and determination they can regulate all outcomes.

—Robert M. Sapolsky, Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers (W. H. Freeman, 1998)