So much about life here feels like an outtake.
Scene: Rose Café, Venice:
A couple of old guys, retired, recount their pre-retirement stories; a clutch of young people, in jeans, flannel shirts, open neck, listening to a geek in a beard detailing ideals about business plans, set on charting a path away from producing things we need, rather toward purchases based on the pressure of social and personal tastes.
It is easy to fill a life with the empty, rather than the endless, why we tend to think that the endless is equivalent to the empty when in a certain frame of mind the endless is precisely what we want from life, which is what Neruda teaches us in the most beautiful line:
“Life in its jewel boxes is as endless as sand.”
What can we see in a tide pool? How does it change? How can we simulate that endlessness in what we surround ourselves with in our own lives? Must keep moving forward. Like the tide pool.
Entrepreneur table: Woman perched (see the emphasis of the perky breasts) never says a word, others lock in on “cachet,” “techno-centric,” “primal version of storytelling around the fire,” “platform toolset.”
Retired guys: Blowhard movie dude in conversation with the RG Woody Allen-sighting anecdoters, tells some kind of story that involves Gettysburg (Civil War?) and then in what seems way too scripted receives a cell phone call (loud ring); looks at the screen, and yes, acknowledges to the cronies that with mild regret he must take the call, walking away in a tone of voice that is both loud and important-sounding . . .
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On to, well, Week 9A, of Steamtown Marathon (Oct. 13) training. In the interest of keeping body (if not mind) in order, I’m taking a second relief week before Week 10, and my longest training run (now planned for Friday, Aug. 30) of about 20 miles. Steady as she goes, folks.
Next: Running for Your Life: Why Race?
