Why I Run

Life is like a race, some short and others long. You can only get as far as the goal you have set yourself to attain. Otherwise, you will end up thinking that your life had no meaning, no purpose, and the drowning thoughts of self-pity shall put you into a standstill. So how far have you gone?

At around high school, I have decided what I wanted to be when I get older. I have dreamt of a richer life, an easy life but what I wanted most was to become a loving husband and the best Dad. I am now a proud achiever of both but keeping it together is even harder than I thought. I think stage 1 was my worst when I get to scream a lot from little things that irritated me like tools that were not where I left them. That was when I had little sleep, fewer coins in my pocket and maybe because my wife and kids are trying to fit in a small apartment, which was all I can afford.

Stage 2 was quite unbearable too. It was when my wife started working again and we had lesser time to spend with each other. We were adjusting to the thought of spending time with people we work with. We were jealous and controlling of each other. It drifted us apart for a moment in a pool of tears. The children were there to save us and we were able to grow and become stronger for the trials that lay ahead. We are now less angry and more understanding. We still have shallow pockets yet we manage to survive.

Stage 3 is all about the bills that piles up like dirt on the countertop before we can even notice it. The stress of working in an office setting with different types of people for more than five years is taking its toll on us. If not only for the means of providing for my family, I would have it the other way and live a simpler life. But the metropolis is like a drug, she got us hooked from the very moment we set our eyes on her. The plan now is to lessen the things we do not need like shaving those extra fat to lose weight.

I do not need to lose weight in case you might think that this is the reason why I run. I run because it is not like life that needs nurturing but rather only a part of life that emulates life itself. In running I only have a few goals at most making it less complicated like staying fit and healthy, setting a personal record or even trying to beat someone else’s time. But the most important thing in running a race is to be able to finish it. Just like life, it has a start and a finish but this one I can triumph within a day and enjoy to my heart’s content. Just like the stages in my life, running portrays all of them in the form of road surface, elevation, terrain, weather conditions, water supply, the gear I am wearing and even the pain that surges my body during and after the race. Being able to conquer all of these conditions and cross the finish line gives me the hope that everything will be all right. Some have doubted, a few never believed and there are those who never gave an ounce of support and yet I have overcome each race. I will keep on running for as long as my family is with me as a reminder that I will be able to get them to where they need to be and that when I cross that finish line, I have made them proud.

The Root Of All Evil

Naive seems to be a difficult word to explain. The definition itself is quite confusing. My high school English teacher once compared it with the words “innocence” and “ignorance.” He put it this way; innocence is for children, ignorance is the lack of knowledge, and being naive is pretending to be ignorant or in other words looking the other way. Most if not all of us are very much naive in many ways. It is the attitude that has kept us blinded by a many things and taken advantage by the people who know better. It is the attitude that led us to believe to the point of addiction.

The expression “Money is the root of all evil” is commonly misquoted for a passage in the bible that says “The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). Money is like guns, they are just objects. I quote a line I once heard in a movie, “guns don’t kill people; people kill people.” It is the same concept that would apply with money. It is our deepest desires that enable us to do evil. Thus, we have always been capable of terrible things. Our humanity helps us from containing the evil force that is always whispering and trying to get out. What we can do is cage it by the emotion we get from what are most dear to us. They can be our family but I am most certain that they are our friends. Family can be our friends but is does not mean that they are. All I am saying is surround yourself with people who sincerely love you and love them back. Having as many friends as possible is not the same as having true friends. There is a big difference between quantity and quality. One can show his soul to as many people as he permits but only a few can touch it and save it from damnation. Evil will always be within us, lurking and ready to take over and it is because of this that man is the root of all evil. But we are also equipped with the power to prevent and nurture such as love and compassion to help us keep it hidden within the deepest recesses of our hearts.