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21 April 2003 (Monday): choose your shoe
Somewhere way back when, buried in my word-processor diaries, I wrote this:
I am meant to walk through life. I am not meant to run.
This faded epiphany screams out at me every now and again. I'm a backpacker, not a marathon runner. I travel light but not without burdens; journeys require planning, as road signs may be scarce and I need to know where the campsites are. I try to make good time and cover decent ground in each day's trek, but the point is ultimately to take in one's surroundings, not to set stopwatch records.
In my work life I am surrounded by runners. Fit and athletic people, all of them, up with the sun for stretches and warmups, double-digit mile runs in every workout schedule. They consume food and drink products with the word "power" in their names. It's easy to label myself lazy among this crowd. Tempting to try and join their grueling sprints around the track, choking back tears of frustration when I can't keep up. But no: better to remember who I am. This isn't my sport. I want to see mountains.
posted by enjelani @ 01:32 PM PST
Replies: 7 comments
perhaps it would help to see it this way: people are sprinting and buzzing around because that is their talent. if you give them a destination, they can shoot up the trail, and when they return they can warn you of angry mountain lions or swarms of mosquitos. then you can walk up at your pace, one which enables you to best use your talents. they may not see things the same way; they're not supposed to. they're just there to work out the nagging details and avert catastrophe.
or something like that. ;)
posted by soren @ 21 04 2003 03:13 PM PST
". . . marching to a different drummer." Yes.
posted by theo @ 22 04 2003 04:32 PM PST
Maybe some of your really heroic work outs are in your head instead of on mountain trail? I mean you have to surmount mental trials in your work all the time - both in isolation and while presenting your work to lots of people... Right? Maybe the issue is venue of workout?
Hehe - that is MY rationalization. :-)
posted by Bill @ 22 04 2003 05:25 PM PST
Lucky Enjelani. I don't know whether I am meant to walk or to run: I get frustrated both ways. When the world wants me to do things on a fast schedule, it drives me nuts. When the world doesn't care what I do and when, it drives me nuts. Too impatient for the goal to fully experience the journey, too appreciative of the journey to focus narrowly on the goal. When you rush through your days in pursuit of an objective, does life become meaningless? Or does it become meaningless when you pass your days with no objective to pursue?
I've heard legends of a serene middle ground, colored pastoral gold and green, where we can savor a thing without missing out on something else. I don't believe in it.
posted by beefeater @ 22 04 2003 05:31 PM PST
Am I mistaken or didn't I once tell you that in a massively amusing misunderstanding about what each of us meant by "moving fast"?
*cough*
posted by Gaudior @ 23 04 2003 03:23 AM PST
Well, walking's good... you want to see mountains, and I've never seen anyone manage to run up a mountain. They're for climbing or hiking.
I've done a fair bit of sprinting myself, and as far as I can tell, it has yet to take me to a perch with a view.
posted by m. mellow @ 23 04 2003 09:29 AM PST
If there were no walkers in the world to notice the mountains, the runners would not know they were there. The poets and painters and musicians of the world are the walkers...the ones who see the pattern of the stars at night and notice that the petals on the flower are different shades. Perhaps the runners get "more" things accomplished in the course of a day or a week, but were it not for the walkers, they would not be able to appreciate the beauty in the world when they had to stop for a breather.
hmmm...I hope that came out the way I wanted it to :)
posted by Karin @ 25 04 2003 05:44 AM PST