Testing the Boundary between Courage and Stupidity
Late November and early December have been colder than average here in Minnesota. Temperatures have been mostly below freezing, dipping occasionally into the single digits with a modest amount of snow and ice on the ground. Nevertheless, I have been walking outdoors 3 to 4 miles just about every day. Since I now tend to be cold most of the time, the first mile of my walks are usually somewhat uncomfortable. Pushing onward does warm me up and the remainders of my walks are a time to notice the subtle beauty of wherever I am while reflecting on various issues in my life, from the immediate and essential to the completely silly and inconsequential. Now some might say that walking in the cold and letting your mind wander is foolhardy. When an icy, howling wind cuts into my cheeks, making my eyes water and my nose run, I prefer to think of it as me valiantly testing the boundary between courage and stupidity. I most often go with the concept of courage.
Yesterday, work stress and tension left me running on a lean mixture of charm, a churning amalgam of discontent. I could easily have chosen to sit in my office chair, spinning around slowly with my middle digits raised or I could have turned to unhealthy food for comfort as I would have in my past. Instead, I put on my parka, pulled up my hood and walked for almost an hour along the Mississippi River where it passes by downtown Minneapolis. I had a hat on under my hood, but I kept the hood up anyway as much to avoid eye contact with others as to stay warm. The dirge-like clomps of my shoes on the frozen pavement eventually gave way to the steady rhythm of softer footfalls. The sky was a brilliant winter blue with the sun reflecting almost blindingly off the chunks of ice floating down the river. A few birds and squirrels crossed my narrowed field of vision as I continued walking. I finally relaxed and felt much of the tension flow out of me. As I turned and headed back to work it occurred to me that it was neither courage nor stupidity that drove me outdoors yesterday, but rather it was simply the need to do something that would improve my troubled state of mind as well as keeping my body in shape. This whole WLS experience afforded me the opportunity to be able to do just that and I am grateful for it.
RP
