Tonight: Two miles!
I took it easy for my last run before my last run.
Tomorrow, I’ll hit up the expo to pick up my race shirt and number and shiz, and I’m also going to try to move up to the 3:55 corral. I originally gave 4:00 as my estimated finish time, but I’ma dream big. Then I’ll do my last easy two-miler before the big day. Feeling good!
I want to share a blog post that really affected me when I read it on my bus ride home and had me thinking all evening long. It’s a fairly short read, so I hope you’ll click over and give it a shot. Maybe it’ll get you thinking, too:
The heavy truth is that we are only here for a short time. We arrive in this world and find quickly that love is better than hate; happy is better than sad and together is better than alone. We pass through on timelines parallel to one another, some shorter than others, some barely overlapping. And then, poof — we’re just as gone as when we started.
Of all the times in all of the cities in all of human history we are here with each other. Even strangers are familiar in part — we’re all here dealing with the same shit, trying to make sense of it all … We might find that, just by being at the same time and place, we bear the responsibility of showing kindness toward one another, and that we, because of this, belong to each other in the quixotic sense.
The whole story is much better than just those pieces I pulled.
It got me thinking about how we’re all desperate to learn about other people’s lives (what are Facebook and Twitter and blogs, really?), yet we’re all much more comfortable doing this face-to-screen than face-to-face for some reason.
It got me thinking about how I see a lot of the same people on the bus each day, but have never spoken to any of them more than an “excuse me” or “thanks” mumbled under my breath. It got me thinking about who they really are, and what we could be talking about if we all weren’t glued to our phones and if it wasn’t considered weird to chat with complete strangers while commuting.
It got me thinking about how most people are good, and that I shouldn’t be so suspicious of strangers, or retract like a turtle into its shell when — gasp! — one tries to strike up a friendly conversation with me.
It got me thinking about how I share my life so openly online in writing, but don’t share nearly as much with friends and co-workers through conversation.
It got me thinking about how important it is to be kind and friendly, to be a lady or a gentleman, to be polite even when other people aren’t, to be helpful and compassionate, to be a gracious loser and an even more gracious winner, to encourage others, and to try to make your mother proud, even if she’s not there to see what you’ve said or done.
It made me want to change how I do things, to be friendlier and more open to people in general.
On my run, I found myself noticing other people who were out and about. I wondered what their names were and what their lives were like. I purposefully met the eyes of another runner and smiled, and he smiled back. I usually try my hardest to ignore everyone and practically pretend like they don’t exist. Why is that?
Anyway. Those are just some of the things I’ve thought about because of that post. Please do let me know what it makes you think about.
Dev on Running 