Opportunities for meaning

The goal was 10 miles, but he only ran a little over 8 this morning. The waves of frustration and teeth gnashing that were expected never came. A goal was missed, but meeting that goal would have pushed his body too far. There is no point in inflicting injury just to achieve some arbitrary distance on a run. It was hot and humid. He had some water stashed along the route, but it was fairly deep into the run, near the halfway point. The run didn't go as planned, but he was able to get out there and run, push himself a little, and be in a condition where he was there for his family for the rest of the day and is ready to take on another run a few days from now. It didn't meet the plan, but it was a success.

Are there any retail transactions more irksome than buying a car? It takes weeks to shop for the right car, understand the options provided in the different models, and find a dealer who can deliver the right car in an acceptable color. Once that happens, you still have the pleasure of spending a couple of hours at the dealership while all of the various forms are filled out and approved. After all of that, you leave with a new car that loses a huge chunk of it's value the second you leave the lot and a new loan that will take years to pay off. Today it was about being there for her. Sure, he could have been negative and complained and been totally disengaged from the process, but he needed to support her through this challenging process. It wasn't about what he was feeling, it was about what she was experiencing. She needed to have support and reassurance. Being negative would just have added to the stress of an already stressful situation. Positive, reassuring, supportive. That's how things went today. And we're that much closer to finishing the aggravation of buying a new car.

The comments about thinking and reading aren't about thinking and reading. They're about how thinking and reading are a way to hide and disengage from the life that's happening right now. They represent a turning away. It's something that's all about me rather than something that is about us. And it's not that all of my life needs to be about us, but the balance is off. Too much living in my head and not enough living with the family. There is meaning all around us. We don't need to seek it internally or plot a course through life that will deliver us at the portal to profundity and enlightenment. You just need to look around you and engage with what we already possess. It's not about finding or getting more.