A few weeks ago, our family took a vacation to the Outer
Banks of North Carolina. We spent a week at Duck, famous for Duck Donuts. The
little town is just north of Kitty Hawk where the Wright brothers made history
flying their first heavier than air plane off the sand dunes just after the
turn of the 20th century. For us it was a joyful time playing with our kids and
grand kids and generally hanging out with our family. Fern and I love making
those kinds of memories.
With time to
relax, I indulged in a summer beach read, Haruki Murakami's What I Talk about When I Talk about
Running:A Memoir. The book is a recollection of various events related to
the intersection of his two passions, running and writing. I found the book
both insightful and sad. It was insightful because it gave insight into a
disciplined life. It was sad because of the admission that life is passing all
too quickly, and for him there is no hope of a life beyond. I would like to
draw your attention to a few of the positive insights from his memoir.
Murakami's wrote:
- "The gym where I
work out in Tokyo has a poster that say, 'Muscles are hard to gain and easy to
lose. Fat is easy to gain and hard to lose.' A painful reality, but a reality
just the same." This is a nice reminder of the importance of staying disciplined,
eating well, and getting sufficient exercise and rest. It sounds like Galatians
6:7 and the principle of sowing and reaping.
-"There are
three reasons I failed [In a particular race]. Not enough training. Not enough
training. And not enough training." This, too, is a good reminder of
seeing and learning from the obvious. Training and discipline are integral to
every accomplishment in life. In 1 Timothy 4:7, Paul admonished Timothy to
"train yourself to be godly."
-"This is a
trite observation, but as they say: If something is worth doing, it's worth
giving your best--or in some cases beyond your best." Again, this is a
nice reminder of the importance of doing any and all jobs well. Paul reminded
us in Colossians 3:23, "Whatever you do, work heartedly, as for the Lord
and not for man."
Well, these
"nice reminders" are a few of Murakami's thoughts. I hope you find
them inspiring interesting. The book helped motivate me to be a better writer,
and a better runner.
