What are your feelings about what you saw Monday?
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April 15: I was at work and heard about the horrible news. There was a bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Taking a minute, I looked at some of the articles. Truly, it was terrible: the timing, the placement, the construction, the effect.
Being an empathic person, during these times, I'll take a minute and breath, then spend some time trying to distract myself to continue with work. And this lingered, as they all tend to despite all efforts.
This one left it's own effect on me.
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What I couldn't stop thinking about was the emotion of a finish line. It's a place of love. No - not the romeo and juliet kind - but more the love of a good home cooked meal, a glass of cold water on a hot day; the love of family and friends. A timeless kind of love that stays in our memory.
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First there is the effort, the pain, and the push. We love those things in our life we have given our time and effort toward.
When I was in elementary I sewed a quilt. Time was spent making it round-the-world style. It was cotton with colors going from dark to light, and fabric with little designs such as pink flowers.
My dad said to me, 'Stephanie you love that quilt'. Hmm? My dad continued, 'How many hours have you put into that quilt?' Well, a whole lot, it was a summer break of working on it for hours and then distraction, then continuing, then picking out new fabric and continuing for yet another afternoon. He continued, 'If something happened to that quilt, you would be devastated?' Yes, that was true, that would have been most terrible (I resolved to keep it out of harms way). He concluded, 'We love what we put time and effort into, whether it's a quilt or a person. It's part of what makes something dear to us.'
And a Marathon: that's all love, effort and time. The love is the:
bad weather where you just grit and bear it
an hour or two on the treadmill watching CSI or E!
deciding to go in early on a Friday night for motivation for that long Saturday run
the iPod playlist that you crank up to get through the last couple miles
the perfect song on the perfect day where suddenly training makes sense and everything is smooth
...
It's the hardwork, the preservation, the commitment.
But the Boston Marathon takes it one step further... It's all of those trials and triumphs, at least twice because you have to qualify.
It's for the love of running, the love of a goal, the love of a kind of freedom.
***
Ani Difranco, arrival's gate lyrics:
gonna go out to the arrivals gate at the airport and sit there all day watch people reuniting public affection is so exciting it even makes airports ok watching children run with their arms outstretched just to throw those arms around their grandpas' necks
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2TqDpVjg3Y)
I've done my fair share of flights and races. Quite a bit of the time it's done alone and that's perfectly fine, but, the feeling one gets when someone is standing there at the rope waiting for you to come through is so nice. I've been on either side of the arrivals gate. My family organized us to be at the top of the escalator, front of the crowd, when my sister returned from Iraq. My half year of working I spent 60 days in a hotel away from home, and I had someone there to remind me that I was missed and loved. Or, when I travel alone, like the song: it's more than enough to just see the other passengers reuniting to feel welcomed back to ground. Both ways, the feeling is ... that of love, the kind that makes you smile with every cell in your body.
A finish line is an arrival gate with a shot of adrenaline. Normally an overwhelmingly positive experience.
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"In physics, power is the rate at which energy is transferred, used, or transformed. " wikipedia
The energy of an event like the bombing is felt all over. It's almost as if the impact of the blast cuts through the entire world, and it's impact are all the negative emotions. Confusion (how could someone do this?), anger (they need to be punished), sadness (the articles and details speak for themselves)... And, I feel these emotions and they definitely have the potential of creating energy. Especially the negative kind of energy when the focus on everything that is out of my control.
So, I try to focus on what I have control of, even if it's small. I'll try to send out some positive energy into the world. Maybe it's a smile at the stranger walking, it's volunteering, helping with stressful tasks at work... It's just little things that will hopefully help another.
It sounds corny, but I'm hoping by trying to embrace and spread the love that is normally at an event like that, maybe I'll be giving less energy to the negative.
Without the energy, it can't be as powerful.
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