Flickering Lights

If you're like me, you wonder sometimes about caveman teenagers.

(What? I can't be the only one ... ?)

Anyway, sometimes when I find myself sitting in front of a television, I remember all of the childhood warnings about how it would ruin my life:

• It will ruin your eyes
• It will rot your brain
• If you sit too far away you will get headaches from squinting
• If you sit too close you will get radiation - and die.

Wow - why did we ever keep sitting in front of something that dangerous? OK, sometimes it's because there is something great on it - think Masterpiece Theater, or the first season of Cheers. Much more often, though, there is nothing great, nothing that absolutely compels us to watch - and still, we are often found in front of the 'idiot box' - and it's at times like that that I start thinking about the caveman teenagers.

I suspect that soon after cavepersons discovered fire the cave parents got annoyed by the endless hours that cave teens would sit staring at it. Why? Because we like watching things flicker - they get our attention. It's not accidental that police cars & fire trucks have lights that flash - it makes us look. So I picture the cave teens being huge fans of this new innovation (they are always the first to know that the next awesome thing is, indeed, awesome).

• You'll go blind if you stare at that fire all night
• Your brain will rot if you don't go to bed so you can be up early for some hunting and gathering
• You'll fall asleep and fall into that thing - and DIE!

For my generation, it was TV - currently it is a variety of screens - computers - DVD players IN CARS (!-my generation could only dream of some future time when such a wonder would be possible) - or 'phones' (a terribly inadequate word for what cell phone/home theaters have become). Sometimes we're staring at these things because they have great information or vital information - but often, I suspect, the hours disappear while we're basically watching the lights flicker.

Just something to think about the next time you find yourself still in front of the television after the good show ends - or when you're checking one more page on Facebook as rigor mortis sets in by way of your carpal tunnel. If you're just watching the flickering lights, give your eyes a rest, and switch your brain back on, and go take a walk.

[BTW - thanks for watching these particular lights flicker for a while].

Life Lessons from my Illustrious Running Career

OK - maybe the career wasn't all that illustrious, but the life-lessons are legit - and one of the earliest directions from my track 'career' was this:

Run through the tape.

Now, just because it has been important advice doesn't keep it from being outrageously funny for a variety of reasons - among them:

• At no point was I ever part of a race that actually HAD a tape held across the finish line, and
• If there ever had been a tape marking the finish line, it would have been long gone by the time I got there, because the winner would have broken it already [see note above re the lack of illustriousness of my running career].

So why did it seem like good advice? Because the REAL message there was to keep running until you passed the finish line. Even if you weren't the first runner across the finish line, someone was keeping your time - and one of the brilliant things about being involved in running is that even if you are not a premier runner, there are still many ways to succeed - including:

• improving your personal best, and (NOT to be underestimated when it comes to personal victories),
• FINISHING.

If you have watched any number of track meets, races, marathons, mini-marathons, 5-Ks - you know that not everyone finishes. Occasionally that will be due to injury, but far more often it is a matter of heart. That's why the people who are watching cheer (and mean it) for those final runners who keep running until they cross the line. (If you have never been present to observe a track meet, I recommend finding a way to attend one - it will do your heart good).

When you are not going to win - or even contend for a top spot - it's tough to keep running.

"Run through the tape" is, in part, advice that can insure that you get your best time - and because I believe in that I have been enormously frustrated over the years by watching world-class runners ease off a few yards before the finish - often missing a world record time by a couple hundredths of a second. My frustration is that of the 'also ran' who would have sacrificed a variety of body parts to have ever held, however briefly, a record of ANY kind (but I realize that these guys & gals have a pocketful of such records, and will probably set more any day).

Most races, though, are not filled with world-class runners - just with folks who realize that there is a choice about running all the way to the finish - OR NOT.

THERE ARE A THOUSAND REASONS TO STOP - and believe me, I know - I rehearse most of them daily. In the end, though, it's still good advice - Run through the tape -

• Even though others (often MANY others) will finish ahead of you -
• Even though it may seem embarassing to still be trying -
• Even though it may not be a day for a 'personal best' -
• Even though any 'victory' accomplished by finishing (be it a race, a workout, a job, a relationship, a project) may ONLY be apparent to you -

Run through the tape - but I've got to go for now - I'm in the middle of several projects, none of which are of earth-shaking importance and many of which seem a little ridiculous, but which are part of today's race - so I've got to go put one foot in front of the other - & then repeat.

No Worse than Ugly Betty

Just a quick blog-related note (especially for the folks checking in here regularly) to say that I was relieved to find out that I was no worse at blogging than Ugly Betty.

If you're not a fan of the (recently deceased) show "Ugly Betty" - it was a great story of a person who was somewhere between 'normal' & eccentric who ended up working in the Fashion industry. Although Betty was designed (no pun intended) NOT to fit into that world, her intelligence, optimism, and willingness to learn and change (without ditching her standards) overcame her co-workers' initial reluctance to embrace her.

Near the end of the show's run, a part of the story was that Betty began a Blog, where she was able to write about the things that mattered to her (while she made her living writing about Fashion). In the last episode it was revealed that, while overwhelmed with work, she had failed to post ANYTHING on her Blog for OVER A MONTH.

I'm still not up to [any useful] speed, but I'm a few days better than Betty.

Maybe being marginally better than a fictional TV character is not setting the bar really high, but I'll take my 'victories' where I can get them. Stay tuned.