Struggling for inspiration for this entry. Got up after not enough sleep, walked the dog through a humid dawn and then did exactlty the same commuter run to work that I did yesterday. The only thing that sticks in my mind, sadly, was experiencing and incidence of a far-too-regular frustration.
Picture this. I am standing at a crossroads waiting for the green man so I can continue running. I am maybe 6 inches from the road; my feet are in the wheelchair/pram ramp. Any closer, thought I, and the risk of getting brained by a bus wing mirror would become unnaceptably high. I do look like a half-decent jogger (especially when I'm standing still), I'm really quite sweaty and I probabaly smell quite bad. Yet a sour faced commuter managed to somehow squeeze themself in front of me. I resisted the temptation to scream "ON WHAT FUCKING PLANET ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE OFF QUICKER THAN ME?" and instead sigh on the inside, waited for the lights to change and swerved around them, this time resisting the urge to drop the shoulder. Maybe it is the same the world over, but Sydney certainly has an oversupply of clueless, selfish, ignorant narcissists. I mean come on, is it really so difficult to take in what is going on around you and *not* act like a twat? Apparently, for some, yes.
Actually, on the plus side, now I think about it, the humidity had dropped somewhat by the time I got going and today felt a lot less like running through treacle. Which was nice. The homebrew gatorade I'd put in the fridge last night, swigged this morning and then left on the kitchen bench probabaly helped.
OK, if you're religious you might want to tune out now and come back tomorrow.
As I came down the steps of the Bridge on the way home I saw two young girls playing while their mother (I assume it was their mother) called to one of them to come back down. Nothing too strange about that. "Phoebe, come down! Come back down" was the call in a quite plumy English accent. What was strange - maybe it should not be these days - was the mother's dress. She was wearing a headscarf and a head to toe robe in a dull taupe or mushroom. It was unmistakably religious garb and to me seemed completely out of character with the wearer. I guess it could have been a fashion statement, but I think not.
I am not a religious person. By quite a long way. My "problem" with this scenario and others like it is not the mother's faith or beliefs; she is entitled to her beliefs as much as I am entitled to believe that Yoda is real. As it happens I don't believe that Yoda is real.
What I believe is human children and born early and helpless. If they were born any later the exit they pass through would...well it wouldn't really work. So they come out all purple and wrinkly and helpless and not at all like, say, a horse, which shakes the goop off and goes for a bit of a run. Or a turtle who is all alone from day one. To have any chance of survival human children live through a considerable length of time during which they must (and typically do) believe whatever they are told by adults in general and their parents in particular. If they don't they will die. Simple as that.
So I find it a little sad that kids are brought up in a way that will perpetuate and pass on belief in a god whose existence is so preposterously unlikely that maintenance of a belief in that god is border line mental. Well, it is if you're a grown up. Besides, why would an all powerful god be remotely interested in what we wear, eat, how we style our hair and how often we wash our armpits? It's just a bit bullshit. Of course the mother might keep her religious beliefs to herself and not talk to her children about them. Me? I simply avoid the subject. As AJ turns 3 on Saturday this has, to date, been quite easy.
Like I said, just my belief. I could be wrong. I suppose. Unlikely, but you never know.
Look, blogging about running too and from work gets dull real quickly, so you might have to put up with some other stuff.
On the running front, to bring this to a close, I ran the same distance as yesterday - around 23km - in about the same time as yesterday - a bit over 2hrs. Whoda though, eh?
1 comment:
Didn't tune out before the religious bit. Couldn't agree more.
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