marathon 1
2003-01-31 - 5:10 p.m.
I'm announcing it here, so that I will have the spectre of shame to spur me on lest I falter--I'm going to run a marathon. I'm not sure which one, although I'm hoping to get into the Marine Corps Marathon (it has a lottery system). Now this may sound all gung-ho and tough, but the course is actually very flat and so is good for beginners. Before I run the marathon, I'm signing up to run the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure (5K). These are my goals for the coming year. A month late, I know, but there they are.
I'm now part of the Humboldt County diaryring, although I am a hopeless slacker and have not put up the little badge-thingie.
LFM writes in his blog about "aditth�na. This is one of those semantic oddities that has two almost opposing meanings. The first meaning, the one the `Pali Word a Day' book uses, is ``resolution, (firm) aspiration, determination''�that is, the qualities and actions of someone seeking after God. The second meaning, listed in A.C. Muller's Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, is ``grace, blessing, assistance''�that is, the qualities and actions of a God that is seeking us. Perhaps we might say that aditth�na is the action of reunification or re-linking (in Latin, tellingly, religio) between God and man." Thanks for the succinct desript, L.
This kind of relates to my new running thing. I honestly feel I'm going to need both sides of addithana in spades to get through a marathon. I've always felt that human beings should not run a race named for a guy who DIED running it (although Marathon was the place and not the man). But now I feel differently. I feel that if 60-year-old grandmas can do this, then damn it, so can I!! But more than that, I want to complete something I never thought I could.
I remember how great it felt to finish reading Milton's stuff. Because there's often a point for me when I'm slogging through by pure force of will. Same with the first time I read Genji. I only finished it by setting a strict diet of 100 pages a day. But once I finished Genji (or Milton) there was this huge sense of accomplishment. I had done something hard and came through it a much much better person, both for the experience of slogging through and for what Murasaki and Milton taught me.
But I always knew I could finish them. I'm not as certain about the marathon. This is the true test of will for me.
More later...
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Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail (The Abduction From
the Seraglio).
Which Mozart Opera Does Your Life Most Resemble?
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