Repetition While Moving Forward

Today is Friday.  I'm still writing about Tuesday's workout. Hopefully by the end of the weekend I will be caught up. 

On Tuesday, I was out on the real track for the first time in a while.  It was just below freezing.  The sun was coming over the horizon by the end of the workout.  We had a group of eight out at the track.  There was almost no wind.  It could not have been better.

We ran mile repeats (or 1600 as the case may be these days).  I did three at sub-6:10 and a fourth at sub-6:20.  I would like to get myself back to where I could hold the sub-6:10 pace for all four.  It has been a while since I've worked that hard on the track.  One observation a fellow runner made is that it tends to be much more comfortable to run that hard on the track rather than on the treadmill.  I would tend to agree.  Didn't feel any muscle strains.  Did feel like I was wiped by the end of the fourth.  Although it didn't show up with any drowsiness at work that day.

How far did I run total?  Adding the mile warmup, quarter between each mile, and 1.25 mile cool down, a total of 7 miles.   That put me up to about 319.  And that puts me on Dewey Ave, US22/US40, on a bridge, crossing Wills Creek, in Cambridge, Ohio.  The path between my last point west of Lore and here included about 3 miles on a trail.  Pretty cool.  The Catholic Church here is St. Benedict--interesting connection as Pope Benedict XVI was the only Pope I've seen in person to date.

Mile repeats always get me thinking about repetition.  But since I am thinking of my virtual pilgrimage, I also think about moving forward.  So how do I conceptualize repetition while moving forward?

Two short ideas.  First, on Monday while at work, I had two conversations about a relatively new program in one of the sister schools at my university called Energy Policy and Climate.  Interesting course.  In one case, a Chinese university wanted to send some students to take classes in that program as well as classes in the business school.  In another case, a student was interested in figuring out how to combine his interest in finance with an interest in energy policy and climate.  Both of these activities are all about connecting dots in my professional world.  Two conversations is repetition. Both represent interesting steps forward for the schools and students.  And working with the leadership in the sister school represents a professional move forward for me.

The other observation is my nine year old who saw me reading a novel at a rather quick pace asking me why I like to read.  I could (and probably should) write an entire blog entry on that topic at some point.  But the short answer is to explore ideas (sometimes again and again, or the same idea dealt with by different authors) while gaining new knowledge and perspectives.  Even my blog writing represents that in some ways.  I read to think about ideas.  I write to sort out the ideas.  I write about a variety of things but some topics do keep coming up.  And when all is said and done, I have moved forward by working through the topics.  So perhaps my simple answer to my son should be "It's cheaper than therapy."  But the more complex answer is it allows me to explore and re-explore concepts that help me to sort out my own world view and how it is evolving moving forward.   

Doing and Seeing Things Over and Over

So, I mentioned the other day in my previous blog that the story of Elisha being presented with 20 loaves reminded me of several New Testament stories.  In fact, Fr. Sam commented on the fact that the story of needing to feed a multitude with limited resources was repeated three times in the Old Testament and numerous times in the New Testament.  He pointed out that there were always five elements of the story: (1) a holy man was presented with a crowd that was hungry; (2) someone brought him a small amount of food; (3) someone doubted that it would be sufficient; (4) the people were fed; (5) there were leftovers.

The fact that this theme was repeated multiple times reminds me of the entry in my last blog last week about the repetition and the lyrical quality of the story of Noah in the book of Genesis when I read it closely.  What is most interesting to me about that is that it is similar to interpretations of the story of creation that I have read and even the original story of creation.  Where it is always a matter of "and on this day, God did X."  Also, when you think about it the repetition of themes is actually a standard oart of fairy tales. Take Goldilocks and the Three Bears as an example.  Over and over again she did something she should not have and found that two of the three options she sampled were a problem.  Or the three little pigs.  It didn't have to be two pigs who messed up and built their houses of materials that would not withstand the test of time, but repeating the message twice helps kids learn the moral.

So, if you think about it, the fact that the holy writings of the Bible reflect the same theme over an over is sort of like a God saying to us, "Hey, did you get the memo.  If I told you once, I told you a thousand times--when people are in need of nourishment I can handle it."

And when it comes to my physical self, the connecting is that running is all about repetition.  Stride by stride.  Or on the track, half-mile by half-mile.  Sometimes just trying to hold a time.  Sometimes trying to improve a time.  But the key is that I have to be ready for and welcome repetition to enjoy training in general and track workouts specifically.  Running and training for running are all about repetition. Things that cannot be changed but that I can adapt to.

Of course, when it comes to nourishment there are even more stories than simply the holy man faced with a large crowd.

So, when all is said, and done, looking at the stories from the Bible on Sunday and thinking of how they relate to what I was pondering last week and the notion of story telling in general, it is interesting to connect the dots.  We as people need to be reminded that God can do anything. We are limited--although we are limited only by our faith in the end.  With greater faith--and taking time to "get the message" from the memos God tries to send us through the Bible, we can be better agents of change in the direction of God's will in this world.  And given how moved I feel by the words in Scripture this past Sunday and the clear linkages to other recent themes, the more amazed I am at how God communicates with me, helps me to connect the dots, and helps me to nourish my soul.

Tomorrow and Saturday, I'll comment on the relative faith of different stakeholders in the Gospel of John story and then on the letter from Paul.  By that time it will be Sunday again and time to think anew about connecting dots and nourishing my soul with my own observations and the interaction with the many amazing souls around me.