Running for Your Life: If-The-Greats-Were-With-Us Thursday

Here's today's quote in the popular feature that is sweeping the digital nation .... With special thanks to my creative friend and wordsmith, Kirk Nicewonger.

"What doesn't kill you will come back to finish the job."
                                                                           – Friedrich Nietzsche

Running for Your Life: Deserters 2015

Great piece in New York magazine this week by Wil S. Hylton http://nym.ag/1BO4Rth that goes to surprising lengths to put a human face on deserter culture, coming on the forty-first anniversary of “The Burglary” (see prior post, four back), in which a group of brave citizens stole FBI documents and changed the course of American democracy -- if not forever, at least until the Internet infected our brains and impeded our moral imperatives -- believing in the just fight against a fraudulently promoted war in Vietnam that sent a generation of ordinary American young men and women to slaughter. 

In this case, US deserters who have sought refuge in Canada are now subject to deportation and prison for their crime. Not so much the desertion itself, but the fact that in Canada they have become public figures, of sorts. They speak out, not as I understand it, in any way that exposes classified information about their wars, Iraq and Afghanistan. But rather just because they have acted, as the Media, Pa., group in 1971 did, like citizens. In so doing, they have been a profound embarrassment to Imperial America. (Thank God, the Media burglars were never found.)

When it comes to objections of conscience, who are the worst offenders? The deserters or the pursuers? Read the article and decide for yourself.

Next: Running for Your Life: Discovery of Slowness

Running for Your Life: Who, What, Where and WiFi

If I were to teach a course today in journalism this is what I would call it. There was a time when a version of this phrase – in its pre-Internet form – said it all when it came to news. It amounted to rank order topics of interest: The Who, What, Where, and Whys of my day – the 1970s – actually constituted a primer for how to be an informed and responsible citizen.

The “Why” kicker always coming back to the core. Why do we care about the topic? Hopefully that answer reflected on what you intend to expose to make the world around you a better place. To comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. Who, What, Where were the preamble; Why, the essence of the citizen constitution.

Now, though, in our ironically “connected” world, that pre-Internet “Why” has been replaced by WiFi. A story isn’t a story unless it has an extra life in social media. Reporters don’t have a platform to say anything unless they have a gazillion “followers.”

Take the New York Times Magazine makeover. Why do the editors choose to allow a comic-writer clown of a Russian American, Gary Shteyngart, to write his impressions after bingeing on Putin-era TV? Because he is getting to “Why?” No. Because he has a gazillion followers. And those followers will bring the new nyt magazine to the conversation: Hastag nyt. Relevance? Not in the noble tradition of Who, What, Where and Why but the ignoble one of Who, What, Where and WiFi.

When it comes to Who, What, Where and WiFi, journalists aggregate followers first and then the news. Actually report the news, bring a critical vision to public affairs? That’s not a journalism class; it’s a history class.

Next: Running for Your Life: Draft dodging in Canada, circa 2015

Running for Your Life: If-the-Greats-Were-With-Us Thursday

Consider this a regular feature, right here at Running for Your Life!

Today's If-the-Greats-Were-With-Us Thursday quote:

“When it comes to smartphones, I prefer to be ignorant.”
                                                                              – Sam Beckett

Running for Your Life: Chasing Winter Blahs

The idea, of course, is to stay ahead of the game. Flu shot, fleece layers, wool cap, parka with Porsche price tag, long johns, lined wool socks, fur-lined waterproof snowboots. Oh, and this winter, something call Yaktrax, slip-on wire-mesh affairs that attach easily to the soles of your snowboots so that walking on ice is significantly less of a calamity than the alternative, that I swear to God are selling like hotcakes in Park Slope hardware stores.

Still, winter – this winter – can dim even the lightest bulb. This is the time to stoke your passion, to set aside time to do that. It helps, too, to see what winter looks like through other animals eyes http://bit.ly/1E6QiAs What passions? Obviously winter sports: cross-country skiing, ice skating, tobogganing. Kids get the snow. Get bundled up in all that clothing, grab a sled, and go to the toboggan hill in your neighborhood.

Or indoor stuff: Write poetry, short stories, essays – get back to that journal (see second-last post) or start a new one. Draw. Paint the drawing. I’m sitting here writing this note after having spent a day in bed with a cold and fever. As a marathoner, I can’t not be a big believer in mind over matter.

In no time I’m back to my passions: running (3.3 miles today [Feb. 17], albeit @ slow pace of 9:30)  and writing. Off to work at The Post. Back on the trap lines, and as a good friend says, looking to snare a mink.

Next: Running for Your Life: Who, What, Where and WiFi