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| Finally went the distance. |
Saturday, December 24, 2011
The big day came and went two weeks ago. After running and raising funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for four months, members of the Triad's Team in Training group successfully ran and walked their full and half marathons! We collectively raised over $35,000. We each ran hundreds of miles, suffered aches, pains, cold mornings, rain. But we did it.The past: Kiawah
My wife and honored hero, Elisabeth, and I awoke that Saturday morning at about 6:00 to prepare for the marathon. High 30s was the forecast for the 8:00 start, rising into the low 50s with little chance of rain. So I donned running tights and multiple layers of technical fabric shirts to keep warm. I stepped out onto the balcony at the Sanctuary. It felt a little warm. By 7:30 (when the LLS staff took the team picture), the temperature had risen into the 40s, with scattered clouds. Great running weather--but not for heavy layers and tights. In a quick trip back to the room, I doffed the extra layers and proceeded to the starting corrals.
Five and a half hours and 26.2 miles later (I never claimed to be fast), I had gone the distance, urged on by Team in Training coaches, by my wife who biked along the route after the half-marathoners had left the course, by LLS staff members, and by Dave York's wife Melissa who also rode a bike. (Last winter, Dave sat out the Disney half to take care of the kid so Melissa could run with us. Melissa sat out this season.)
The future: ?
There's always somewhere to go, some new challenge to take on, some distance to go. Having challenges is part of being human. And it's part of being human in society. Sometimes the problems coming from living socially grow so big as to demand change. Sometimes we know society needs fixing, but we don't know exactly how we want it fixed. That sense of malaise turns to frustration, to fear, and, for some, to action. Any action, Even if it's only to join Peter Finch in telling the world that "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this anymore."
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| Peter Finch in Network |
My emerging challenge is and must be political. Working within "the system" to change those elements that deny average Americans the freedoms and liberties that made America great. Elements like politicians that heed the call of big corporate lobbyists, while ignoring the best interests of their own constituents because they need money to mount increasingly expensive re-election campaigns. Elements like party bosses who put party above people.Elements like businesses that foul everyone's air and water supplies for private gain, passing on the costs to everyone as a hidden tax. Elements like the legislators and bureaucrats who pass the laws and regulations making these spoliations absolutely legal.
The protesters have effected change in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Politicians are taking notice in Morocco, Syria, Myanmar and Yemen--some implementing changes to forestall a breakdown of the social order while others use violent repression to maintain the status quo. In the United States, the "occupy" movement, ill-defined as it is, has brought hope to students, the unemployed, working professionals, grandparents and just everyday folks that change is possible. That they are the agents of change. A belief is emerging that if we, collectively, go the distance, we can make right what is wrong with, America even if we don't yet know how.
So I invite you to join me in going the distance to restore to Americans a nation that lives up to its promise of providing "liberty and justice for all."
May the blessings and the promises of your winter holy days give you, and us all, the strength of purpose to be agents of change in 2012.
John Motsinger
