Respect

I got my hot sweaty run all right; and a whole lot more...


As I was on my way out, Matthew asked if he could come too. He loves running around the block with me, and hence impossible to refuse some good father son time. Five hundred meters later, Matthew made his sprint to the finish.

And then I was off.

It was incredibly hot and the South Easter was gale force. With my arms pumping, heart pounding, and legs burning with effort, I charged at a snail’s pace into the teeth of the wind. The thought of a route that avoided it was enticing but the challenge of running headlong into a wall of fury sparked my imagination.

My legs seemed to have a life of their own, they just felt like running. I found myself loping up a particularly steep hill and then into the countryside. Surprisingly there was another runner up ahead. Catching him up, I discovered he was a big chap in his early sixties. We ran side by side for a couple of kilometres, sharing runner trivialities. The running seemed to be effortless yet my time had run out, and I turned for home.

The roaring of the wind in my ears was immediately replaced by music which had till then lost the battle to be heard. The wind pummelled me from behind, lengthening my stride, and the merciless sun solicited rivers of sweat from my tiring body.

The kilometres flew by and I was soon home. Fulfilled and fatigued!

It was only in the shower that the thought struck home. I had run a couple of kilometres with a sixty year old man, a man more than twenty years my senior, and he had effortlessly matched my pace into a gale force wind. He had talked of long runs into the mountains with glee and waxed lyrical about races longer than 160km.

Now that’s worthy of respect! And goes to show that age is never an excuse!

Average, not quite?

I had a conversation with one of my mates a couple of weeks ago. That in itself is not surprising! Surprising was that this chap claimed to be average and was quite upset about it.

Another mate immediately stepped up and told him that he had an incredible family life and was a great dad. Someone to be respected and looked up to for just those qualities as sadly they are unusual in the world. I think he was a little taken aback by this comment.

This world is a funny place. For the most part respect is generated by a thick wallet, a fancy car, labelled clothes, and a palatial home. Society loves these people; they have made it big and deserve to be our hero’s.

Or do they?

We have just seen Tiger Woods fall from grace. A man blessed with extra ordinary talent, who mastered a difficult game, and made it work for him. But we have seen that linked to that great talent was also a great weakness. Then there are pop icons like Britney Spears, plenty of cash but trailing a set of life disasters. Suffice to say there is not enough blog space to discuss the celebrity world and their issues. Money seems to be a wonderful thing, but I imagine it must magnify any weaknesses we may have. For most us, we will never get to find out the hard way.

It seems that there are two main directions one can take in life. Focus your life on the art of making money, although whether one succeeds or not is a different story! The other avenue is a life of service to one’s family and or community. It is rare to find anyone who has successfully married the two, although there are many philanthropists who make tons of money, discover that money is not everything, and then turn to helping out the world.

Path number two has no glamour, does not seem to be fun, allows for zero recognition, and includes much personal sacrifice. It is no wonder that few aspire to be the best at it! We need more people to step up and be average at the affairs of the world and brilliant with their families.

My ‘average’ mate is indeed blessed with a rare gift and is one of the few that actually deserves hero status!