posted
Li Mu Bai: The things we touch have no permanence. My master would say: there is nothing we can hold onto in this world. Only by letting go can we truly possess what is real.
Running, you lose yourself, become breath, blood, bone, through the long passage and out into light reborn.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote: Running, you lose yourself, become breath, blood, bone, through the long passage and out into light reborn.
Hmm...I've been running for a long time and I don't think that's how I've ever felt about it. I'm not trying to rain on your parade; it's an interesting perspective.
Posts: 1813 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Heh. I ran cross country for years, and I'm not sure it was ever about losing myself. Perhaps that's because we were racing? If you lose yourself, you might lose the race too.
posted
"Running, you lose yourself, become breath, blood, bone, through the long passage and out into light reborn." "I don't think that's how I've ever felt about it."
hmph, and I thought that was just a description of the runners' high thatcha get starting at ~20minutes after ya hit your stride. But then, running isn't jogging.
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"Why" is the most dangerous of questions. The "Why Game" the most dangerous of games, mentally.
Here is how you play.
Ask any question. Answer to the best of your ability. Take the answer you get and ask "Why?" Take the answer you get and ask "Why?" Take the answer you get and ask "Why?"
Continue.
Eventually you will get to questions you can not answer, or answers you can not accept.
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According to the article, runner's high is closer to smoking dry bud; which makes "let's get stoopid" sense. I remember running along the waterline edge where dry loose beach meets wet compacted sand, enjoying a gentle breeze of salt air and the light of the Pacific sunset playing though the prism of spray and breaking waves. Then, "That's a nice wave..." "Great break, look at the face on that thing..." "Wish I coulda caught the ride. That breaker's over my head." "AAAmazing! Look at the colors bouncing around in the curl..." "That's so beautiful.....so beautiful.....beautiful.....so beau ?!? that's still OVER MY HEAD " Cut 90degrees to sprint upbeach !!!WHOOSH!!! *thump bump oof thump oof roll oof roll roll roll* "cough cough cough wheeze cough cough" as I recover from being undertowed up the beach more than halfway to the seawall. Ya know you've reached true STOOPID when your first thought afterward is "That was AWESOME..." laughter.
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Isn't it possible that I simply asked "Why?" While I was running? I could have asked it another time, but I didn't. What if I had?
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I'm hiking the Appalachian Trail starting in June. That's 2175 miles of "Why?". The only answer I have is "Because I want to". Then I just have to make myself believe that.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: I was jogging tonight and I asked myself... why?
I almost stopped. Then I kept jogging.
Why?
If you stopped, you would be away from home in the middle of who-knows-where in your shorts and a tee-shirt. You decided that you'd best get back home. You had no wallet and cellphone, so you couldn't summon a taxi. You could walk home, but that would take longer than just jogging home.
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This thread reminds me of the Gary Larson cartoon where a prosecutor, taking the cross-examination of a dark-looking cow on the witness stand, asks: "look, we know HOW you did it--HOW is no longer the question. What we now want to know is WHY... why now, brown cow?"
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote:To me it seems more integral than dangerous to our mental development.
Careful, your philosophy is showing. I wouldn't really call it dangerous either though. Unless you're referring to little kids and the danger is of me hurling them bodily away if they ask, "why," one more time. Actually, my usual response is to let it go on for awhile, then say, "I'll answer that if you can remember what your original question was."
Orincoro, The other answers I was mulling over submitting were, "because of the Fantastic Four," "Jesus made me do it," and, "for the money." Looks like I picked rightly. Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by lem: This thread reminds me of the Gary Larson cartoon where a prosecutor, taking the cross-examination of a dark-looking cow on the witness stand, asks: "look, we know HOW you did it--HOW is no longer the question. What we now want to know is WHY... why now, brown cow?"
Gary Larson once wrote that he often wished he had become a Cowologist. I will grieve the death of the Farside forever. Along with Calvin and Hobbes.
Damn you Sally Forth... DAAAAAMMMNNNN YOOOOUUUU!!!! Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Orincoro: The lure of the trail. What's over the next rise?
Not so much really. It starts to all look the same after a while. Sure, there will be spectacular views now and then, but the majority of the time there isn't anything different about the mountain just completed and the mountain about to be started. If anything, it's the mental challenge which will keep me going. "What, you can't do this? psh, sure ya can!" And notice, I'm talking about really physically exerting yourself. Why continue? Simply because. I don't know if running does that for you.
Posts: 2827 | Registered: Jul 2005
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So I was thinking about this thread tonight while I was pondering a few things. There may *may* be a place for me next year at the university of Minnesota music program next year. I have also been talking up the idea of coming back to Europe to teach English either in France or Spain.
What I do next year is another rise in my life's contour, and which direction I should choose will define many of my experiences. I'm not thinking about family, about friends, about all the things I could do with my life, like I'm a beach ball in the tide, washing up wherever I may.
Not to say I don't enjoy my life, because I do. I am just having a why moment.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I'm a senior in highschool, I ran track my freshman and sophomore years, and got vicious shin splints both years. The climate of misery that surrounded those seasons, the lack of camaraderie(generally) with my team mates caused me to not do it my junior year, a decision that I whole-heartedly feel was the correct one. I think, looking back, that track may have been a more pleasant experience if I did not have shin splints, on that tact, and with the inspiration of my friends' running stories and such, I was like "OK, unlike other years, I can ACTUALLY run during the off-season, get in shape, not hurt myself during the real season, and enjoy being in the best shape of my life and competing and all that good stuff." So when I run now (I should do it, even though it's cold...) I either zone out, which is a good thing for me to do, think(stress/plan?) about running plans, where I'm about to run to, how tired I am etc etc, or think about things. I think a book on tape would be a good way to pass the time, if just running isn't cutting it. So. I guess my reason is because primarily, being physically active has soooo many benefits, and otherwise, for pride, common ground with people, a physical goal for myself. (Sorry for giving "my life story" )
Posts: 655 | Registered: May 2005
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So we were watching the BSG movie when it aired (we usually digitally record or download stuff) and I realized how much I frakking hate commercials. Diamond commercials. Yes, shiny rocks are pretty, but I find it insulting that I seem to be expected to not only want them, but to want the exact same pendant that most of the commercials are about.
When I finally snapped and griped about it (I really don't like diamonds- I like splash of color in my shiny rocks) was the moment SciFi chose to show two diamond commercials in a row. I hate TV.
I spend a lot of my life asking WHY?
(Don't much care for running, but have recently fallen in love with kayaking. Too bad the local lake has become a few muddy puddles miles apart...
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
But Olivet, diamonds are love. How else is your Beloved supposed to show his special, intimate connection to you and you alone other than by purchasing a mass-produced item being heavily promoted on commercials?
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