Gotta Catch Up!
It is Easter Break here! So I only worked three days this week, but it was a crazy three days, trying to wrap up paperwork and whatnot during that time. I did get my running done, well I did well on Tuesday, ran short Wednesday, but totally made up for it today. I was shooting for a steady pace today, slow and steady, 9 min/mi. I was a little faster than that, which I’m not wholly pleased about, but only 6 seconds per mile off, so I’ll take it. I don’t feel completely exhausted either, like I have been feeling for a couple weeks now.
given that it’s a holiday weekend, I am going to try and front-load my workouts and take it easy on Sunday and Monday. I’m actually well ahead of where I want, or need, to be with miles this month and I may consider rearranging my training schedule due to this. Meanwhile, I need to look into a race one of my students told me about coming up at the end of May, and it’s time to start planning races for when I’m in the US this Summer. Definitely going to run the Branford Road Race, which I missed last year. Also, Labor Day I will run the New Haven Road Race, but only the 20k. Don’t even know if they’re doing the half marathon this year, but it seems silly to me, why bother with the one extra kilometer? Traditionally it’s a 20k, and that’s that. Then Gulf Beach is hopefully in the cards for me as well. Depending on what I come up with for a job situation, the Self-Transcendence Marathon may be in the mix as well.
Spring has definitely sprung here. The grape vines were growing, green leaves glistening in the Sun on my run today. The German tourists were parading past my apartment this afternoon. There’s a special irony to a bunch of old Germans parading down my street to see the oldest synagogue in Italy. But it’s also Easter weekend, so there are all manner of tourists in town, because up and down the entire region, it is universally understood that Trani hosts the best Easter celebration. Ah, all night Stations of the Cross.
They really parade through the streets, priests, monks, penitents, it’s wild. And I was telling my class how funny it is to see real Capuchin Monks and think about how that’s where the drink, cappuccino, comes from. One of my students, was unaware that the two were related, I got so excited. One of my weird facts actually educated someone! So that was a lot of fun. Then we talked environment. They didn’t understand why they are always asked to talk about the environment during the speaking portion of their English exams. I explained that it was because it is an important issue, and therefore they figure everyone will learn and be able to talk about it. I also explained to them why it’s important, and about how we’re in the 6th major extinction event in Earth’s history, and how it’s most likely our fault this time.
Which is another thing, because I was talking about this the other day, you all remember. Then one of the bookfaces pages I follow posted a piece about how we need to stop factory cattle farming because it’s making wild horses in North America go extinct. So I mention that horses don’t belong in the Americas anyway, and people got all sorts of offended by this and called me stupid, and mentioned that the horse evolved originally in America, and all this nonsense. Yes, but it went extinct and other creatures took its place, and then when it was reintroduced it drove those species out and damaged the biodiversity. It is an invasive species, and I get that people love horses and whatnot, that doesn’t make them any less damaging. It’s amazing how people simply ignore reality over their feelings. There are times for that, but not when it comes to the environment. This is the problem we have. Everyone watches nature shows and feels bad for the little deer, or bison, or springbok, or whatever is getting hunted. I won’t lie, I hope they all escape too.
But here’s the thing, many people would actively interfere if they could, because how dare that predator kill the cute whatever. The predator needs to eat too. Lions can’t eat tofu. We can, they can’t. Some creatures are specifically required to eat others, and that’s the way it goes. We can’t let our feelings on the matter get in the way. Just like I’ve been seeing people sharing an article about Taiwan banning the use of dogs and cats as meat. Why? Because they’re your pets? For other people they’re food. What puts the dog or cat on a pedestal above cows, chickens, pigs, or any other animal. This selective care for things is most of the problem in the world. Like so many vegans and vegetarians only caring for animal rights, and completely erasing the horrors of human rights violations toward people of color for centuries in their fervor to “prove” that the plight of animals deserves equal footing in the pantheon of bad shit we humans do. Yes, we need to demand better treatment for animals, but as I discussed last week it is a different argument.
It’s so weird how the things I post end up showing up in other ways a little after I post them. It happens often to me. As I don’t believe in supernatural phenomena, I don’t claim some pseudo-scientific prescience. However, I think I see patterns and I see the way things come together well. I think it gives me a way to take good educated guesses as to what is coming. I think I put puzzles together well, basically. Not saying that gives me any special say, just saying I tend to somehow have a good grasp on what is going to trend, even though I keep a healthy distance from, well, most all pop-culture and things like that.
Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!
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