Running Commentary: #6

Running Commentary: #6

July 15, 2012--Sunday

     Today's goal: run one hour and twenty minutes.

     During the last stretch, Laura led us into the round-de-round of a cul-de-sac. My mind was hollering to my feet--"Stop!" I looked to heaven and yelled, "Give me a vial of mental toughness.!!" The miracle of miles spent working hard appeared. The 'quit' was gone.

     The things Laura and I talk about! Some topics are forgotten or voluntarily redacted from print. Sometimes the word sounds are familiar, with the same stories being told over and over; their re-telling underscoring the importance of a message or lesson.

     The rhythm of words can be hypnotic. Running to the beat of the words making the stories puts me in the continuum of past-to-present. Laura's talk to me and my talk to Laura morphs into self-talk. There's no separation. The familiarity of the stories, their beginnings and endings soon blend; new stories are old stories.

     Other stories cut-away, stand out and are put aside for pondering. In particular, Karen's odd question has stayed with me...."Why are there so few cross generational friendships and, why, in your case, why does this friendship work?"

     Yesterday, running around a local high school track, I told Laura my sister's question continued to bother me. We were doing light track work, mixed with my definition of speed drills. As we hopped and skipped and huffed and puffed through high humidity, I suggested a theory of connectedness. It's possible, I suggested to Laura, that she'd and I had had a lot of emotional devastation in life and that we'd simply driven it underground--cauterizing feelings. Laura didn't agree or disagree. She just didn't say anything.

     Maybe this is why I like running the school track. It's a circle. Life events occur in cycles and patterns. As the Oglala Sioux, Black Elk said, "You have noticed that everything an Indian does is in a circle, and that is because the Power of the World always works in circles, and everything tries to be round." I suspect, many of the lessons or messages in Laura's and my stories, are just reminders, bringing forth old lessons, on their way to coming full circle. This is one possible answer to Karen's question. Just a circle busy at work.

July 16, 2012--Monday

     Laura begged for a rest; a slow two miles for me. Tomorrow, we hit it again!

[D. L. Fixico (2003, p. 43), The American Indian Mind, uses quote from N. S. Hill's (1994, xi), Words of Power]