Christopher McDougall, Mother Teresa and obesity

On Sunday's run I had some time to think. Recently, I posted a picture on facebook that was a cheap shot at the people who lined up to support Chick-Fil-A. I pretty much got the comments and likes I expected but one status update from a friend the next day had me thinking. He was bemoaning the political commentary on facebook and how it was mostly crap flinging and little actual discussion. He closed with: "Reading these posts, I wonder if I ever actually knew some of these people at all ... :("

He and I have been friends for...wow, has it really been three decades? For those of you who have entered my life in the past decade or so, indeed from the past two or three years, you would scarcely recognize me. In the past few years, my politics and thinking have shifted substantially to the left. While I was running, I couldn't help but examine this.

Doreen and I were talking about this recently since she too has noticed a change in her thinking. She attributes it mostly to her degree program and it putting her in contact with people who benefit from social programs. I had been thinking that it was my experience as a class 3 obese man had made me more sensitive to what it's like to be regularly crapped on. As I ran, I began to think that there might be more to it.

Christopher McDougall gave a TED Talk on the connection between compassion and running.

and this talk has been rolling around inside my head since I heard it. I've seen what he's talking about. It sounds a bit egotistical but either running attracts a better kind of person or it makes you into that person. Much like Mr. McDougall, I wasn't sure which since honestly, in many points of my life, I have been a right miserable bastard.

 As I ran I pondered the nature of running. What are the universal experiences of running? Sure there is a community and with any community there is a commonality of thought but within running this usually extends into various forms of training, types of shoes, what is a "good" race. So I started thinking on training and racing and recovery and the ability to endure discomfort and pain and...hold on right there. I remember being introduced to the concept of suffering as a holy state from an article on Mother Teresa. She (and others) believed that not all suffering is bad and it could bring a person closer to God.

I don't know about closer to God but I'm wondering if temporary and voluntary suffering make you more keenly aware and sympathetic to those who have less choice in the matter. Maybe there is something about spending a few hours per week tired, hungry and thirsty that makes you understand just a tiny bit more, what it might be like for someone who endures simply for lack of money, or a government policy, or having made regrettable but human mistakes at a prior moment in their lives.

I'm not relaying in of this as an "ain't I great?" essay. I'm still a deeply flawed person who holds at least a dozen seemingly contradictory notions to be True but I am still a work in progress and I'm getting progressively more comfortable with who I'm becoming.