Meghan's Blog

« Week of November 20th | Main | And The Canyon Was Grand »

November 22, 2006

Virtuous Patience

"Adopt the pace of nature; her secret is patience." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

For several miles in my most recent race, I ran within earshot of two people engaged in conversation. At one point, they paraphrased and discussed the above Emerson quote. They equated patience with being slow in reference to long-distance running. They said, nature's processes, like the changing seasons or evolution, are very slow to occur. So, they said, if we humans proceed slowly, we will be successful in an event like a 50K race.

I'm momentarily lacking much patience myself, as a pipe burst in my house yesterday (again, this also happened to a different pipe during the summer) and my basement was flooded in a few inches of water that had a broken skim of ice floating on top. The repercussions of this mess were many and unfortunate: everything in the basement is wet or damp; the water was shut off to my house; I spent much time trying to clean up in the miserable, barely above-freezing temperatures in my basement. Things seem to be more in control today than yesterday; however, I'm still lacking in the patience department.

Anyways, back to the idea of nature and patience. A few weeks ago while I was running and letting my mind wander aimlessly, it settled back into Emerson's quote. Sadly, an old Guns N' Roses song also simultaneously popped into my head. You know that one, "Patience." Why I can still recall this song's lyrics is beyond me, but the song goes,

...Said, woman, take it slow
And things will be just fine
You and I'll just use a little patience
Said, sugar, take the time...

GNR also equates patience with going slow, this time in reference to the proceedings of some adult extracurricular activities. However, I do not think that Emerson (And, really, who cares what GNR thought?) meant for us to interpret him in this manner.

That is, some natural processes are, indeed, quite slow. Think about the lifetime of a star: their "births," "lives," and "deaths" take millions and occasionally billions of years. And what about plate tectonics and erosion? It took a few dozen million years to push the Rocky Mountains up into the sky, and it'll take a lot longer for them to tumble back down again. However, some natural processes occur very quickly. What about the movements of a hummingbird's wing, or the speed at which a cheetah moves across the savannah? A hummingbird's wing moves so fast that humans cannot discern a single wingbeat in real time, and the Thompson's gazelle being dragged into the shade of a tree for consumption might be able to describe its predator's, a cheetah's, speed as fairly fast, were it still alive to to do.

I believe that Emerson meant to equate patience with perseverence, adaptation, perpetuation, and endurance, rather than slow speed. Regardless of the speed of its processes, nature has continued, albeit in a changing manner, for billions of years. And, I kind of think that it's going to continue in this way indefinitely. When a meteorite struck the earth and effectively instigated an obtuse (and theoretical) extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs and welcomed the mammals, the face of nature changed, but it also continued. When humans began their indulgent and aggressive manuevers in nature, such the that thing called the Industrial Revolution, nature changed, but also continued. In reference to the human life, I believe Emerson was trying to teach us the value of nature's characteristics. If we humans can manage to persevere, adapt, perpetuate, and endure through our own lives, we are more likely to be successful.

Here's the point at which I relate this to running (Yeah, you probably wondered when/if I was going to make it full-circle with my thoughts.): I think that these ideas may be easily applied to running as well. Throughout our running careers, we will be exposed to a multitude of conditions, like injury, other people, sickness, personal motivation (or lack thereof), life's schedule, fatigue, cold weather, good and bad food, hills, heat, torrential rain, dehydration, races, mud, and etceteras ad nauseum. If we can approach each of these conditions (and, perhaps, our running career as a whole) with an attitude of perseverance, adaptation, perpetuation, and endurance, then we will likely be more successful in our careers. If Emerson were around to chat up about his philosophy and running, I think he might say something like, somedays you run slow and others you run fast, but always be patient like nature.

I'm going to try very hard to take this attitude with me as I run around the Big Hole in the Ground this weekend. I will probably run fast and some point, and I will mostly likely run slow at others. However, I will strive to run patiently.

Posted by Meghan at November 22, 2006 5:37 PM

Comments

Posted by: corrado giambalvo at November 23, 2006 5:36 AM

Posted by: corrado giambalvo at November 27, 2006 5:27 AM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: