Subtitle

A CONFLUENCE OF DAYS, WEEKS AND YEARS

by Jonathan Vold

Monday, November 14

Motivation: Muses Of The Run

It is a reflection of life, this run through fennel fields.  We run alone, we run in crowds.  We need an inner drive, we need encouragement.  We balance focus and diversions.  We endure for the sake of endurance and we rest when we need to rest.  We set big goals dependent upon little goals and then adjust, and sometimes we advance in ways we don’t expect.  We know we are mortal bit we live as we can and give all that we have.  We know, too, that all we have is a gift: every breath, every trail, every step of the way.  And in the end, if we live right and appreciate life’s goodness to the fullest we will be able to lift our arms up, feel the joy and declare the victory, knowing our ultimate calling is complete.
 
That’s some moleskin philosophy for you, with a touch of pocketbook religion and the seasoning of Lucian revision.  Ecclesiastes’ Preacher, whom I have cited earlier, is my muse for the old testament wisdom, and for that extra dose of testimony —and let me call it a testimony of faith, not religion: what I soulfully believe, not what I may dogmatically adhere to— my muse is, with some more of that Lucian spin, the apostle Paul.  Paul may have had more heavenly goals and a higher calling when he wrote to the Philippians, but it doesn’t take much to imagine he had the influence of Philippides to inspire him:

Not that I have secured it already, not yet reached my goal, but I am still pursuing it in an attempt to take hold of the prize...  I do not reckon myself as having taken hold of it; I can only say that forgetting all that lied behind me, and straining forward to what lies in front, I am racing towards the finishing-point to win the prize of God’s heavenly call...

—Philippians 3:12-14 (New Jerusalem Bible, 1985)

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