Joe Henderson (see http://www.joehenderson.com ) is a gentle (and gentlemanly) essayist whose love for long distance running has helped countless joggers turn mere exercise into pure joy. At one point in his 1996 collection Better Runs Henderson counsels moderation and suggests:
| Failures are less devastating when expectations aren't excessive, and successes are all the more satisfying when they aren't planned. |
What a nice thought! And it applies to so often — especially, for me, as I get older and crash headlong into my new, sometimes-embarrassing mental and physical limitations.
Maybe aging is just Time's way of helping me grow up a bit? At least it's less painful when I take Joe's advice, turn down the gain on my hopes, and leave more headroom for unforeseen happiness ....
TopicRunning - TopicLife - 2002-08-08
(correlates: LoseTrack, CheckingOut, StillAlive, ...)