Welcome 2009!!

I ran 6 miles this morning, a feat worth noting since I've been complacent about fitness for several months. With my iPod feeding me a playlist intended to drown out my exertion, I trudged along a familiar and hilly route promising not to stop. It wasn't easy.

It was cold - I think 20 degrees - but the sun was out and at 8:00 am on New Year's day, I pretty much had the world to myself. As I plodded along, I couldn't get my mind off the book I'd started the night before.

The night before - New Year's Eve -I had originally planned to just hang out at home. But at the endth moment, my neighbors invited me over for dinner and so I spent the early part of the evening with them. I bugged out early hoping to snuggle down with my latest book until falling asleep. Such are the New Year's joys of late middle age!

When I got home, to my horror, my latest book, favorite reading glasses, and phone were trapped in another neighbor's car and I couldn't rouse her to free them! I was stuck with a backup book my sister loaned me, "One Month to Live," and reading glasses I rummaged in a drawer.

I'd just finished reading "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle", a tragedy along the lines of Hamlet that leaves you feeling depressed, unsatisfied, and wanting to reach out to an Edgar Sawtelle Recovery group just to make it through the day. Coming off that book, I'd chosen an easy read (so easy I can't remember the title) but was now hoping beyond reason that my sister's book would satisfy my night-time reading fix. As an aside, my sister usually loans me books geared toward an 8th grade reading level and authored by pastors, ministers, or church-strong people with a headfull of cliches but no writing skills. "One Month to Live" is no exception.

I made it through the first chapter of this book before falling asleep. I think I would have dismissed what I'd read entirely, but for me, the juxtaposition of having recently read an extraordinarily written tragedy - tragedy being experiencing pleasure in the face of a known and tragic ending - with this poorly written but thoughtful concept of "what would you do if you knew you were going to die in 30 days" produced an excellent layer of contemplation for my run.

And we'll see where that follows!