My First Nighttime Trail Run
…It’s a place I’m not sure I want to go, but if I get into any of the longer ultras (which I am not at all saying I intend to do) I will have to deal with that. For now, I’ll just consider it an interesting sensation, and I’ll empathize with those who do go long…
Boston Marathon bombing
We take a breath, realize that we’re still alive, realize that we can stand back up. And then we stagger forward again, as that man did, towards the finish line. Not in anger, probably with defiance, but mainly because we know that we really have no choice. (Rough #5)
Quantifying the good and bad in people
...humans aren’t simple in that way. The balance between the good and bad a person does is irreconcilable — the one doesn’t count against the other, they don’t cancel each other out. No one is innocent and all do good and bad... (Rough #4)
My neighbor mutilates his trees
He sees no ugliness in what he does. He didn’t shudder at the thought of trimming the row of beautiful rhododendrons against the side of his house just as they were beginning to truly flourish... I wanted to cry; he proudly pointed to his work and said “they was getting a little high.” (Rough #3)
Time (gratitude and greed)
...we must find a balance between that gratitude for what we have and that greed for more of it. To somehow be both satisfied and searching, to reconcile our gifts against our hunger. (Rough #2)
Permission to publish rough work
Could I take what I just wrote, which is rough but not too bad, and put it up on my website? To get to Yes on that, I’d first have to give myself some permissions, a new set of rules that apply to... (Rough #1)