40 Days to Better: Day 3

As we move around the picture to the left today we are on image three (the tattoo) and the idea of something borrowed.  I felt like I was running on borrowed time this morning as I did not leave until after 6:10--a rarity for me.  On day 3, I ran just 4.1 miles at around a 7:38 pace.  Nothing major.  Just a nice way to stretch out my legs a bit on the first truly cool morning in a while.  And while I ran the first mile in the 8:20's, I was feeling good enough and relaxed enough to open up for the last three.  Goal tomorrow is a tempo out on the streets from 5-6.  We'll see.

As far as the image goes, the tattoo is not borrowed.  It is on my leg forever.  The artwork is original.  However, the idea for a modern reinterpretation of an ancient story (akin to Godspell in relationship to the Gospel) was borrowed.  My artist borrowed ideas from different books.  In each case, we changed things a bit--so it is not completely like borrowing and returning in the same condition. It is more like borrowing and making something your own before sharing it back with the world.  An interesting form of borrowing.  This makes me think of the fictional mockingjays from The Hunger Games.  They were described as mimicking a sound but then change it to make it their own.

In any case, the thing that I have borrowed a lot of this summer is other people's time.  Friends' time.  The time of friends who could help me think through a bunch of things about career, about running, about what my life is centered around, and about what my life ought to be centered around.

And, of all the things (mostly ideas) I have borrowed in the past year it is the notion of what my life ought to be centered around that is most important--marriage and family--then running and work.  I won't say what order for running and work--but neither should ever eclipse marriage and family.

And while I borrowed friends' time and ideas about marriage, marriage is not borrowing.  My wife's promise was a gift to me.  Not something to be borrowed and returned.  Not something to do with as I wish.  But something to cherish every day and value every day.  Also, of course my promise to her was also a gift freely given.  Not something that I lent her for a time and would ever take back.

Still, marriage has led to a lot of borrowing of ideas (Christmas and Easter traditions are good examples).  But that is where "borrowing" ends.  Despite the fact that the "something borrowed" continues my use of the traditional marriage expression, this summer I have learned once again that marriage involves a full commitment and a gift rather than a lending or borrowing with the expectation of getting something or giving something back.  The goal of day three of forty days to being better will be to take that message with me--unconditional giving forever--always into my future with Sherry and never to forget.