Quarter Moon Worth More Than a Dime to Me


One advantage to going out for an early run is that you sometimes get the gift of a silver moon hanging demurely in the pre-dawn sky.

That happened for me yesterday morning. It was a quiet little run, cloaked in darkness most of the way. I went out early to make sure there was room in my day for a lot of pending busy-ness, half of which never even came to pass.

Later in the morning I was able to spend 15 minutes sitting in a chair just listening to my breathing and trying not to solve the world's problems, which had come to my attention over cereal as I read the newspapers. All the time the world has problems, but also all the time (so far, anyway) my breath goes in and out. I can choose which of those phenomena to focus on. I find the day goes best when I divide my attention between the two. Not too much world saving, not too much navel-gazing.

Today all I did was walk around here and there, most notably around the Lafayette Reservoir with my friend B. What a bucolic scene there. Miles from the above-mentioned world problems. We talked about our various joys and woes, but none seemed so real as the birds flitting through the trees and the sun shining brightly upon us.

Tomorrow another reeeally big run. As I get ready for sleep (it's evening now) I wonder, why do I do this running thing? I'm not built for it (I'm short and rounded, not statuesque and angular); I'm not fast--I'm slow. All I know is that the need lives in me. I have to do what I call "run." There are others, even others at my age level, who can cover in seven minutes what takes me 11. The running magazines I read are replete with images of human gazelles, the likes of which, well, I ain't. But--I don't care. I have to get out and schlep up and down a macadam path for hours, schlep until I can barely stand, until I limp that last block or two, trying not to fall down before I'm home, my shoes caked in dirt, my hair dank with sweat, and my face tracked with energy-gel drool. Lovely, yeah.

Humans were born to be in motion. I'm a card-carrying human, and the old left-right is the motion I was born to do. I'd blither a bit more, but I need to get ready for bed. Gotta run long tomorrow, y'know.

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