Nooooooooooo!vember

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Je cours pour la France.

I don't know exactly why, but the latest attacks in Paris seem to have suddenly become much more personal. As I pounded out a few kilometres this morning I tried to make sense of it all but couldn't. Thinking about it just raises ever more questions and increases the abhorrence and uncertainty surrounding it. There seems to be no real way of stopping it. The threat to innocent lives will always be there, so long as this war continues. 

Perhaps what the terrorists don't understand is the enormous difficulty of undermining a society. The more you throw at it, the more determined it becomes to withstand the offensive. Unless you are prepared to send in an overwhelming army, the destruction of a society is impossible. Without such an army, all that happens is that innocent people needlessly lose their lives and the perpetrators foster ever more intense hatred against themselves.

One commentator I heard suggested the attacks were designed to increase the mistrust and hatred of Muslims in Europe, and thus create a breeding ground of new recruits for ISIL. Maybe so, but that's still no way to win a war, although it may of course prolong it.

But to my run, which, for what it's worth, I dedicated to the victims of yesterday's attacks. Conditions were near ideal for a jog; pleasingly cool, and with the drenching rain of the past 24 hours having ceased, the streets smelled wonderfully fresh and vibrant. The only slight concern was the carpet of lilac jacaranda flowers that cover the footpaths around my district. Jacarandas are an exciting, vivid tree when in bloom, but when they drop their flowers, the resulting slush makes the footpaths very slippery, so some caution was required.

I was still leg weary from my previous tough, hot outing, and found the hills especially hard going, but I had just five kilometres planned, and did that plus another half without too much difficulty. My improving fitness is motivation enough at the moment, and I'm enjoying these outings around my local streets. Without the pressure of a race deadline I am running enough to see continual improvement, without the anguish of having to stick to a particular schedule or exercise program. The day will come however, and probably soon, when I will need to start focusing on a race of some kind.

Meantime, the troubles caused by ISIL are enough for me to run for the sake of not wasting my freedom and good health, and to keep it that way for as long as possible.

En solidarité.



P.S. I haven't forgotten Beirut - equally horrific, of course, but there's a familiarity about Paris and the people of France, and not just because I've been there, that's at the heart of my empathy, I suppose, which isn't meant to diminish my concern for the victims in Beirut, but which I suppose does. These are the things that concern me when I think about them as I run. I have no answers, and perhaps never will, but I'm working on it.