Calm like a bomb

During the 30k there was plenty of time to think about what I’m doing, and why I’m doing it.  One man running a marathon doesn’t amount to much of anything.  One voice screaming at top volume in a crowd of people amounts to basically a loud jackass.  But sometimes it’s not the loud voice that makes the difference.  Sometimes it’s the quiet, steady, strong voice with passion and power right there—waiting to be released with a simple spark—that makes all the difference.

 

In the post-race reflection I think about how runners run these distance runs.  Steady power for 2 or 3 or 4 hours, sometimes longer.  They keep an easy, consistent pace for mile after mile.  They maintain a calm, cool confidence (or at least the appearance of confidence) for the entire run until the very end and BOOM!  They explode in a final sprint that runs competitors off their heels or simply carries them over the finish line.  For the full duration they’re calm, then like a bomb they explode across the finish line.  All endurance athletes do this, but watching a runner do it is like watching a time lapse video.  It slowly and inevitably unfolds before you, and it’s pretty cool.

 

That’s one of the things I thought about and I thought about the advocates and volunteers.  How do they help the abused children of Harris County?  Not by going into a courtroom or home and blowing up at the offending parents.  No, not at all.  You don’t fix abusive parents with a 2 by 4 or an axe handle.  No, you sit calmly in a courtroom and listen to testimony of atrocity after atrocity… tick, tick, tick.  You do home studies and look at living conditions… tick, tick, tick.  You gather information… tick, tick, tick.  You look after the needs of the child… tick, tick, tick.  Then finally, at the end of it all, you give your recommendation to the judge.

 

Boom. 

 

You change a life.  You break a cycle.  You rage against the machine that is child abuse.  Government funding is constantly being cut.  Support networks are being choked if they exist at all.  A system of child abuse (and other social ills) is perpetuated by a sick social environment that tells everyone “this is how you should be” and “this is what success looks like”.  If you don’t have it and you don’t know how to get it and you don’t know how to cope with that unattained expectation, you might lash out.  Unfortunately, it’s the weakest among us that are often on the receiving end of that outburst.  You might kill a child for using a trash can for a toilet.  The inability to cope manifests itself in broken people and in the wake of that destruction is the broken bodies and minds of children and they bring that brokenness to their children (if they live) and the machine churns on and on.

 

The cycle can be broken in the same way a marathon is run… steady, steady, steady...  BOOM!  You see it happening.  The steady crescendo builds, the intense concentration past the pain and the uncertainty, the focus on the goal carrying you past the ups and downs… then BOOM!  A final sprint that culminates in crossing the finish line or a recommendation to a judge.

 

Then you rest, and prepare to do it all over again.  Tick, tick, tick…