August 30, 2010

MultiMedia meets food meets outdoor adventure -- that's my space. I like it. Soon, we will have the GroundUp blog up and running.

Today's deep thoughts with Jack Handy involve "progress."

It's been a good six weeks since I've began my self recreation. What would Thich Nat Hahn think about this whole endeavor, this whole movement toward an end state that is better qualitatively and quantitatively than the start state? I'd suppose he'd say that being on the train of progress is as good as reaching the station.

My pastor agreed. That feels real funky to write that. I feel like I'm about to start raging on about the powers against rattlesnakes and strychnine. Possessive pronoun + pastor = strange. I was raised Catholic; am raising my kids Catholic; I look back upon a set of Irish-American grandparents born in Rural County Roscommon and Tipperary who grew up fearing the wrath of a Catholic God. But, in the end, I'm a skeptic; I'm your typical Doubting Thomas. I want to put my fingers into Christs' wound to believe.

I'd always pretty much gone through the motions at Church. I had always looked to my pastor to somehow open up my eyes. Maybe with all the incense burning and the deep bellow of the organ -- maybe then something magical would happen -- yes, that's it, something magical. But it wasn't that. "My pastor" is a pretty normal, non-magical guy. He's, to put it out there, just not very inspiring. But he nailed it on Sunday, in his own humble way.

And that's the word! - humble! It doesn't sound like much as it comes off these keystrokes and I suspect that anyone reading this will shrug shoulders and move on or stop reading altogether. I can't even remember the turns of phrase that sandwiched that word, "humble." One thing I do recall, though, is that one cannot equate "humble" with self-deprecation. It's nothing to do with martyrdom, but it's about stripping back layers toward truth.

And for recreation, there seems to be a lot wrapped up in truth and humbleness about progress. I felt true and humble progress this past weekend while running 8.5 miles through the woods in Stone Mtn park. I was cresting hills fast and feeling quick recovery. But, honestly, it wasn't the fact that I dropped my running partner (sorry Dave). Usually I'm the one getting dropped, but in the few times I'd dropped others I'd felt what you might call egoist progress -- and it's totally empty.

But in this case I felt my own muscles pulsing, my lungs efficiently pulling in air and sending oxygen to where it needed to go. It was an awesome feeling. Embracing that honest, entirely humble progress -- that's a key to this whole self recreation thing.

More to come tomorrow...on hills. How I used to feel about them and how I feel about them now.