Dark Territory

Today we got the first snow of the year.  I geared up and set off for a run because there is nothing quite like a nice hike or run in fresh snow.

It’s quiet.

While I’m out there I decide to try something different.  I close my eyes to see just how far I can run and be comfortable about it.

I figured it should be pretty easy to go 20-30 yards at least, and I should be able to gauge if I’ve wandered left or right on the trail.  Why, you ask?  We had just watched CBS’s Sunday Morning, featuring a story on Simon Wheatcroft, a blind runner.  I can only go 10 yards or so before I have to check myself.

He started running on a soccer field, from end to end, between goal posts. After mastering this, he got bored and decided to go navigate his local trail loop.  Not long after, he saw it fit to go play in traffic so to speak.  He is able to detect the lane stripe under his foot.  He is also able to give directions around his neighborhood from the passenger seat, to the point where he can tell you if you’ve missed a turn.

Crazy, right?  Wait, he’s run three marathons and he has become a “test pilot” for all kinds of guidance systems that will help blind people regain their mobility.  What an inspiration.

Seeking further challenges, he decides to go the Namibian Desert to run a 155-mile ultra-marathon.  And he will do it unassisted.

Well, almost. At the halfway point, he has to stop for assistance, because he runs into a flagpole. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?! A FLAGPOLE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DESERT?!?! As if there was any doubt, that does it. The Gods must be crazy.

Use It or Lose It

After a full summer of not thinking about school, or what I had just learned 10 weeks earlier, I sat in class hoping for essentially a free pass and a soft start to the semester.  The professor had other plans. He picks up exactly where he left off, and when he asks the entire class to fill in the blank, that was all he got - blank stares.

It wasn’t that we weren’t attentive.  Or interested.  And the teacher was one of the best I’ve ever come across.  It just wasn’t there.  Oh sure, the summer was well spent.  Any brain cells that couldn’t keep up were left for dead.  The thinning of the herd.  Never thought I’d need those again.

Dr. Holzer just looked at the class.  But he wasn’t bewildered.  It was turned into another teaching moment.  He just said - “That’s right! This is what happens when you don’t use what you’ve learned!  You lose it.”

There was another time when I went to class, pretty darn crispy from the night before, and I went to my usual seat in the far back corner.  Time to review the study and homework assignment on the board.

The professor looks out over the class for a knowledgeable student to get the problem started. Despite  my best Invisible Man impersonation, I was selected and had NO CLUE where to start.  Because I hadn’t done the work.  After my first 3 failed guesses, he ended the torture and said “That’s right class.  At the end of the week you will all be getting paychecks.  Mr. Rusk however will be getting a Pink Slip.” Ouch. Quite few lessons there.

Another teaching moment, although a different professor.  And over the years, both lessons have proven true, no matter the subject area.  If you don’t do the Work, you will have no clue where to start or what to do.  And if you don’t use it, you will lose it.  That last one seems to work on just about everything.  If only it worked on my love handles.

Haha. I’m not talking about trigonometry, either, although it applies too.  I’m talking humanity.  Spirituality.  Your mind.  Use it or lose it.

With thanks to Dr. Siegfried M. Holzer, who prepared me well for life.