I’ve been running a lot.
This is why I run:
I like to hang out with Courtney and Elisabeth
Relieve stress from school/work/life
I am competitive
I’m developing my belief system of a healthy lifestyle/perspective so I can talk to patients about it without being a total hypocrite
Time alone with God, my thoughts, worship, and music. Prayer.
I feel better
Sometimes I run past the Morris Hill Cemetery. The one on Americana and Latah. I think graveyards are beautiful, thought-provoking. I love looking at the dates and names and wondering who all those people were, who they left behind, what counted in their lives. I like that there’s contradiction in running to stay in shape past a graveyard. Running past death makes me think about living. How do I live so that my life has significance? How much control do I even have? Solomon (a king of Jerusalem in the 2nd century BC) is, some say, the wisest man ever to have lived, and in Ecclesiastes he wrote that life is meaningless. Meaningless? Nothing is new under the sun. Seasons come and go. Everyone dies regardless of what they believe or don’t believe, and whether they are righteous or wicked, good or bad. A month after I started running past Morris Hill Cemetery my grandpa died. Recent thoughts on life and death and significance compounded with grief and sorrow and sadness and MEANING. Mourning for my grandpa the last week of his life was one of the most beautiful and horrible experiences I’ve ever had.
Excerpts from the book of Ecclesiastes-Chapter 1 and Chapter 12
1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 "Meaningless! Meaningless!"
says the Teacher.
"Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless."
3 What does man gain from all his labor
at which he toils under the sun?
4 Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever.
5 The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises.
6 The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north;
round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course.
7 All streams flow into the sea,
yet the sea is never full.
To the place the streams come from,
there they return again.
8 All things are wearisome,
more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
nor the ear its fill of hearing.
9 What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
10 Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.
11 There is no remembrance of men of old,
and even those who are yet to come
will not be remembered
by those who follow.
The Conclusion of the Matter-Chapter 12
9 Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. 10 The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.
11 The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one Shepherd. 12 Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.
13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
