Revolution 49 Position 017
March 04, 2024.Fallen Trees and Remembering a Run
There's been a lot of wind lately. On top of a lot rain all summer and through the winter. Many trees are falling over. Several a prominent in the few spaces of trail around here.
This one took out part of a set of stairs that were so neglected that it is almost an improvement.
This one is not far away and right over the trail I just added into the daily route.
This one is next to an old access road on the property of a psychiatric hospital. In the older days it had a working farm, atheletic fields and a reflecting pond. The access road was built for the pond. It is now used by Towson University to access their practice fields.
I spooked a fox coming up to this tree. There are a lot of foxes around here. You never really quite see them. More like a flash in the subconscious of form and color. It reminded me of a run two years ago that left enough of an impression to write something about it. I found it so here it is.
the fox and old man
I was running down a highway with cars full of office workers zooming their way busily to the cubicles, mindless drones listening to the radio, or music, or a podcast like me.The road was made for them. It makes it easy to be mindless when you're on a highway with a bunch of other mindless drones going to some destination, doesn't matter where. The highway is made for you. Get in, turn on, zoom off, turn off.
You don't have to think, the world is made for you.
As I was running down this highway, mindful of the cars zipping past, a fox emerged from the brush on the shoulder wanting to cross. But the fox knows that world is not made for him He darts into the lane but immediately pulls back as the next wave of cars crashes down the slope and curve of the highway.
I run toward him. He catches my eye.
I say, "Good morning Mr. Fox!"
He steps back away from the road as the human is part of the same world not made for him.
But he holds my gaze which makes me smile as I run down the highway not made for me.
He waits patiently for the gap to appear so he can cross that same space not made for him.
An hour or so later on my way back on that same highway I see an old man. He is obviously lame in one leg. Suffering some malagy that forces him to use a cane and a lopping gate. Walking is difficult.
He emerges from a side street into the shoulder. Ignoring a crosswalk he angles across the lanes of the highway. Oncoming traffic doesn't stop, zipping past him in the center. I yell at them. They haven't the minds to hear.
The old man ignores me as well. He just continues down the center line never stopping his lopping gate. A work truck sees him and stops to let him pass. But he ignores the gesture and continues on his own path in his own way.
The fox and the old man stuck with me for the rest of the run.
What does it mean?
Perhaps, just that the world is not made for us. Any of us. But can choose how we experience and move through it.
Its good to remember and be reminded of this.