Jogging along yesterday I finally figured out a good name for that special exercise-induced euphoric state: light mindedness. It's a happy mental escape hatch from the counterproductive tension that dominates life in this part of the 21st century world. No time-pressure, no heaviness ... just sensation, immersion in the present moment, plus alert anticipation of what may lie around the next corner. Attentive poise. Grace. Zen.

I went at a comfortably slow pace and set new personal marks in distance (~15 miles) and duration (~3 hours) for an outing. And when I was done I felt pleasantly foolish in my pride, the way Samuel Pepys once said he felt about his new pocket watch, and the way I felt six months ago when I first managed to run ~10% of that distance without collapsing.

Twenty years ago CS, a senior colleague, politely asked me to stop finishing his sentences for him. "Slow down," he advised. "This job isn't a sprint, it's a marathon." CS is now retired from a successful career and spends his time enjoying his grandchildren. He was light minded. May we all be so wise.

(see also GoWords (29 Aug 1999), GoodDay (25 Jun 2002), ...)

TopicPersonalHistory - TopicRunning - TopicLife - TopicMind - 2002-08-22

(correlates: ThreePhoneCalls, ThroughObscurity, ClingingToBeliefInArt, ...)