modern life is crazy, we put massive value on “stuff”, on meaningless guff, on dreary detail that really does nothing to improve anything.
it may just be me and the way i view life, but so much of it seems designed to try and appease us, make life seem more tolerable somehow.
actually sometimes i think it IS just me
other people seem to find contentment in trivia. satisfaction in routine. a sense of accomplishment through trips to the supermarket and managing to snag a 2-for-1 “bargain”.
enjoyment from low quality, mass market tv.
spiritual nourishment from a family day trip to the same place as the last two hundred and forty seven day trips.
some people manage to do the same job, day in, day out, for 30 or 40 years. unblinking. unthinking. un-frigging-believable.
i even fall for it sometimes
get lulled into a sense of security, seduced by the comforting sense of routine.
sometimes it seems “nice” – I mean, why bother looking for anything beyond the basic needs of man?
you have a job, you have a house, you have the ability to pay the bank for the house, for 30 years…
why look for more? why feel the need for more?
every now and then i manage to wake up
scared. petrified. waking up from the living nightmare that is, essentially, my parents’ life.
and then i get more scared. i realise i don’t know how to change it.
just that gnawing of the stomach, the urge to break free. to throw off the shackles of the ordinary and the bondage of “safe, secure and sensible”.
the desperate feeling of living an inadequate existence, wanting, no NEEDING, more.
and the feeling of imprisonment. held captive by society and what is deemed “normal”.
perhaps i’m just ungrateful, or insane.
but what if i’m not?
this post may at first seem massively personal and introspective – and it is… however…
I truly believe there is some deep yearning inside everyone, if not everyone then most people…
I think sometimes we allow ourselves to be seduced by the status quo, the templates that society hand us.
take a look, deep deep inside, and tell me it isn’t so – that it really IS just me…
i don’t think you can – and so my question is a simple one – how do we/you fix this?
for me, getting fitter, healthier and finding a love for running woke me up
i still struggle with the details of how this all looks in the future, however there is a strong sense that running really can and does change lives.
it has a direct impact on those who take it up
it impacts lives through charity donations raised
it impacts lives by providing others with examples and inspiration
if the people of this planet could only get healthier, stop focusing on the mind-numbing trivia – lead more active lives and more spiritual lives (whatever that means for you) then the world would be a much much better place.
wouldn’t it????