"As to the natural parts I have, of which this is the essay, I find them to bow under the burden; my fancy and judgment do but grope in the dark, tripping and stumbling [wobbling] in the way, and when I have gone as far as I can, I am in no degree satisfied; I discover still a new and greater extent of land before me, with a troubled and imperfect sight and wrapped up in clouds, that I am not able to penetrate." Montaigne-"On the Education of Children"
My domain name, "Pais au dela," is the original French translated here as "extent of land before me." My goal for this page will be to explore, in an ambling way at times, the great land before me hoping to find clarity as I advance. I will focus centrally though not exclusively on mental health issues in my stumbling march forward.
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Triptych Series 2: If I Were a DJ
Strange, I've never really listened to music much in my running. I say strange because I love the musical boosts supporters often set up along race courses. "Eye of the Tiger" coming up Mountainwood on Memorial Day in Huntsville (I've said in an earlier post that I'm cool with cliche). UVA pep band in front of Poe's dorm and Mr. Jefferson's Library at mile 9 of 10. That's good stuff, but for some reason, I'm not motivated to bring an ipod along when I run on my own.
After my first triptych post, I had a great mid distance training run last Thursday. It had been difficult at times to visualize those snap shots I wrote about. Literally moving them around to format the post, I discovered that there were different spatial possibilities for visualizing past, present, and future when I run. Before writing the post I had only seen a timeline sequence of images inside my mind. But I can put the images in different spots mentally. Once I started moving the images around, I found that my focus was clearer when I projected an angelic future hovering above my left shoulder and a diabolical past above the right. I've rearranged the first post to reflect this arrangement.
I had already begun thinking about a musical version of three layered time when I decided to write about triptychs. I knew which three songs would represent my past, my present, and what I hope will be my future in training. The songs were loaded and ready to play. It was an invigorating surprise last Thursday to hear my choice for the present--the Beastie Boys "Body Movin'"--start playing in my head. I listened and loved that moment of a run that was going well and shot a taunting cosmic bird at the past that was now over.
If I knew how to DJ, I'd sample all this together and it would sound amazing.
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