Wednesday, September 14, 10 am eastern time. That's when I'm supposed to register for the Boston Marathon according to my age, gender and qualifying time.
I used the word "supposed" up there because it is "the group" that thinks I should participate in the Boston Marathon. I am the only one I know who doesn't want to go to Boston. In fact, I've qualified for Boston twice. Neither time was I trying for a BQ. I was just running a marathon as fast as I could.
It baffles me that the idea of my time being a BQ earns more merit that the idea that my time was damn fast!
I didn't hesitate for one second to enter Silverton. I didn't hesitate for one second to enter Across The Years. I didn't hesitate for one second to enter Heartland Spirit of the Prairie. Yet, while many people have tried to convince me to enter Boston, I can't bring myself to click submit. Running a marathon with 28,000 others, along with sidewalks lined with crowds, actually sounds horrible to me.
It is the group that thinks Boston is good. But I have purposefully worked against the group ever since leaving the monastery. Not because of hatred or even arrogance, but because much of what the group does is noisy and forgetful of spirit.
Yes, I have once again mentioned spirit. Maybe there is spirit in each human running or lining the streets of Boston; but not many of them will be remembering the fundamental idea of God deep down within. Like it or not, most of us have to find a quiet and undistracted space to remember and connect with our inner divine person.
The group thinks I should vote. The group thinks football is important. The group is patriotic and favors war. The group thinks religion and the Bible actually mean something. I've even considered giving up God and spirit because these words provoke group think. I quit participating in society so I could think differently than the group. I haven't watched TV or gone to movies or listened to music so that my brain is free of group thinking.
On September 14, I'll be at work as usual. I have many meetings already scheduled that day. I'll take my early morning run in the pre-dawn silence. I'll come home in the evening to the solitude of my apartment. Registering for Boston is not on the schedule. If I'm going to blow a couple of thousand dollars on a running race, I'd rather blow it in a number of other locations than Boston.
Monday April 18, 2012, I hope I am at work. Saturday April 16, I hope I am running a 50k in southern Missouri.
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