Catching up
Yes, I took it a little too easy over the weekend and didn’t write! But I will make up for it today. I did run exactly on the schedule I planned. Giving me Sunday and Monday off. I got my miles in on Saturday, Tuesday, and this morning. This morning, I didn’t bother to pace myself, because it was the second day of running in the rain, and the first day I had to be ready for work. So with a time limit I just let myself run as I was comfortable, instead of trying to hold back. Mind you, I kept pretty well to my forced pace on Tuesday morning, in spite of getting hailed on for the last km.
Except for the weather the running has been easy. It’s difficult to keep spirits up when it’s days on end of bad weather. Getting pelted by dime-sized hail for 1/2 a mile yesterday was no treat either. There was no hail in the forecast, I just kept my head down, eyes protected and did the best I could. Other than that, things are pretty much on auto-pilot today coming out of the long weekend. Next week, I have Monday and Tuesday off again. We celebrate kicking the Nazis out on April 25th, and in Italy when a holiday lands on a Tuesday, they give us Monday off. Same way with a holiday on a Thursday, we would get Friday off. Then May Day is coming up, three weekends in a row with at least an extra day.
Meanwhile a song came up on my mp3 player, and I listen to the song all the time, but I never sing along to it, because it uses words I can’t use. Because we have words in our language specifically designed to oppress people. It’s not just that this word was used and then they decided to use it for the express purpose of making people feel inferior, or seem inferior. It was created, designed, specifically for that purpose. I’ve said this many times, if you’re unsure if you should, or could use a word, then don’t use it. If you’ve been told that it’s offensive and you shouldn’t use it, then don’t use it. There’s no gray area here. There’s no “passes”, just don’t say it. Can’t be much simpler than that, comes up in a song you like, don’t sing along. Don’t care if you’re all alone, don’t do it, censor yourself, show some humility. You will learn from the experience. Sometimes, sitting in silence, no matter what, and just listening to the world around us is the most instructive thing we can do. Being humble, policing yourself, choosing to keep your mind open and your mouth closed is very beneficial.
It is very difficult sometimes, we are trained to defend our ideas, our positions, our beliefs. Frankly, if your ideas, positions, and/or beliefs are worth a damn, then they don’t need defending. If someone questions you on these and you can’t mount a proper defense, then perhaps you need to look at why you can’t, not that you’ve been called out for trying to hold onto an indefensible position. You can look at it in a very literal sense to get the lesson in the figurative sense. Look at the Battle of Thermopylae. The Spartans (there were also Athenians, etc. there) commanding the army took the best DEFENSIBLE position in the pass, and held off the entire Syrian army simply because they could defend their position. It was true that the way around was unknown to the invaders, until someone betrayed the Spartans. It was true that the terrain made it so that a small, capable fighting force could withstand the attack of a much larger army. The way in which the Syrians continued their attack was indefensible. When their navy was defeated then their continued attack was indefensible. They could not sustain what they were doing, they were defeated. When you can’t counter, when your ideas and beliefs cannot be defended, then they must be changed or abandoned. You must humbly accept that you were wrong. It’s ok to be wrong.
This is the value of taking time to listen, instead of always talking. Learn when you are right and when you are wrong, and then just shut up and learn. So much of this life, so much suffering, and strain, and hurt comes from people just not being willing to admit that they’re wrong, or they don’t know everything. I had this discussion tonight, in a very limited way, with my starter students in a local middle school. I asked them to count how many students were in the room. When they said ten, I corrected them and told them there were 12 (me and their regular teacher). I told them, “I don’t know everything, neither does your daily teacher. There’s always a chance for us to learn something new.” Did it help quiet them down, not so much, they are only like 11 years old. Oh well.
Have fun, keep running, and remember; if Gil can run then so can you!
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