Running with Ms.Frizzle

One of the catch-phrases of Ms. Frizzle in the TV show, Magic School Bus, is "Look for connections." (Yea, I watched a lot of that show, when my kids were at that age.) Somehow, I was reminded of this by intersections of Sakyong Mipham's book, "Running with the Mind of Meditation," and Scott Jurek's "Eat & Run," even though these intersections are not quite the same as Ms. Frizzle's connections. Still, both relate to what came to my mind, i.e., everything in this world is linked (by six degrees of separation, if you like!). Anyways, here are two examples.

Jurek had an entire chapter about growing up being told by his father that "Sometimes you just do things!" Sometimes, you just can't know; you just accept and persevere. Many years later, Jurek would wonder, during his second Spartathlon, a 245.3 km (152.4 mi) race from Athens to Sparta, whether his father had actually meant, "Try not to think about consequences, just trust in your body and yourself and the universe." Mipham also devoted a chapter on "Just do it," including a reference to Nike's slogan. Mipham focused on how does one just do it. His answer was "with gentleness."

In his book, Jurek wrote about tearing his ligaments at mile 44 of the 2001 Western States 100 and about the importance of the mind in responding to what had just happened. He described his four-step checklist for such occasions, the first step of which is to feel and acknowledge one's emotions in response to the situation, i.e., to get all those emotions out of oneself and out of the way, so one can move on. Jurek won that race with those torn ligaments. Mipham, in his chapter on "How to Deal with Pain," wrote the first step is to acknowledge the pain, and the second step is not to overact, thus separating the pain from the mind reacting to the pain. This way, one can learn from the pain, which then becomes an opportunity to grow.

Now, Jurek did read about Buddhism and Taosim, so, perhaps the intersections of his and Mipham's books, illustrated by these two examples, should not be that surprising. However, I read these two books back to back by chance; so, these intersections are still intriguing to me. I will wrap up by relating a personal experience related to these kinds of intersections, though not related to running. When I was in grad school, there was one semester when I took three courses that were scheduled one after the other: agronomy, soil mechanics, and geomorphology. During one particular day of the first week of that semester, all three professors lectured about the exact same topic (related to basic properties of soil)--but, each from his own discipline-focused lens. In quick succession, I was exposed to the same part of the natural world, but through three different views. I was wowed. ... OK, I guess you had to be there! For me, though, that day definitely was a highlight of my academic career.