Good old days

When I was out running a couple of days ago, I was thinking about my experiences with romantic relationships and about the good old days. The wonderful song by Billy Joel, Keeping the Faith, came to mind..

"You know the good ole days weren't always good
And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems

....
Oh, I'm going to listen to my 45's
Ain't it wonderful to be alive
When the rock 'n' roll plays, yeah
When the memory stays, yeah
I'm keeping the faith"

This morning, as I was out running, a number of high school kids were engaged in the same pursuit. I was able to keep up and then go past them.....yes, I am keeping the faith!

Back in the 80s one evening I was out running on Sheridan Road by the Baha'i temple and a young woman simply ran by me as if I was stationary. I tried hard to catch up with her, and I did after a few miles and then collapsed while she kept on going. Found out later that she had qualified for the US Olympic team. ...Good old days!

Running Past Banality and into Giving and Receiving

As I was running this morning, I was contemplating two excellent articles I had read in yesterday's Financial Times.

Susie Boyt, in her piece "I saw the world in a new light" writes "Very early on in life I planted the idea in myself that only the things I achieve without help count. Inner resources and self-reliance are to me as cigarettes and alcohol are to others. I’ve always done everything possible to avoid putting my hopes or happiness in anyone else’s hands. Yet, as I clung to this kind stranger, wholly undefended, my sense of wellbeing soared. It seemed to me suddenly that help and love are the same. The feelings I had nursed earlier of being hurt and at a loss subsided under this superhuman concern. The whole episode was very moving."

Harry Eyres, in 'The dangers of banality' writes "The danger of banality is an insidious one. Banality weakens our intellectual, spiritual and ethical muscles, rendering us flabby thinkers, unable or unwilling to chew over the difficult matter of experience and make it part of us. The connection between the banality of evil and the evil of banality is the danger of a surrender of our human powers of discrimination. We always need to be discriminating, and we always need to be working on refining our powers of discrimination, or one day we might find we can no longer distinguish between a human being and a widget."

Running, both the physical and the mental aspects, can truly become banal without a conscious effort at recognition and discrimination. In a broader sense of life, providing and receiving help can elevate one above a mere banal existence and open one's mind to possibilities, a de'light'ful experience.

Thanks, Ms. Boyt and Mr. Eyres, for a good education.

Running into a Dead End

One great perk of my current job is that I get to run at my preferred time, i.e. late morning, every day in the summer. This lets me observe a greater cross-section of people. During my daily runs over the past few years, I have had the pleasure of greeting (or being greeted by) a gentleman who lives a few blocks down the street. I would see this gentleman either working in the yard with his dog or walking his dog. Once I saw him with two dogs and asked him about the addition. He said that it was his daughter's and he was taking care of it for her. Exchanging only greetings but never names, we recognized and appreciated each other.

Today I saw this gentleman for the first time this summer. He hailed me from across the street. He was working in the yard as I was running. I waited for the traffic to clear and crossed the street to say hello. I asked him about the dog. I sensed the emotion in his voice when he said he had the dog put down last year because of the pain and suffering the dog was going through. I mumbled something about there being no other alternative sometimes. He added that losing the dog was sometimes a lot more than losing a family member. He remembered that the dog would always accompany him when he went to bed.

All relationships, including those between humans, animals, and plants, involve love and death and are 'moving' experiences. Thus one needs to "keep running." Stagnation is not a choice for the human 'race.'