Books from Christmas

Christmas and New Year came and went. With the New Year we even have a new president. Time only will tell if he can translate his talk into reality. In any case, it’s a New Year and every day is a new day. We are back to our routine after the holidays – leave for work in the dark, return home in the dark, shower, eat, read the headlines, clean Tigger’s (our almost 18 year old cat) litter box and then go to bed only to wake up and do it all over again. So, I have not had time for anything, not even to post on this site. However, in between I have been reading a few books that I received as Christmas gifts from our daughters and our new son-in-law. I must say they seem to know me a lot better than I know myself.

I finished reading “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch. I recommend this to anyone. I am not dying of cancer nor do I have any illness at this time. But I can relate to most everything as I have gone through many ups and downs including a close encounter with an accidental death. Randy is absolutely right. You have no control over the cards you have been dealt, but you have control over how you play the cards.

The 2^nd book (“Into Thin Air” by Jon Krakauer) is an amazing book in a different context. I recommend this to anyone with any adventure spirit. What makes some one consciously assume the agony at high altitude with thin air risking life in some of the harshest conditions? Yet, unless someone took that risk, the highest summit would be always an illusion. Many people died in the expedition described in the book. It may even scare some people away to try. I climbed Kilimanjaro, but Mount Everest is not Kilimanjaro and I am in my 60s. As I read this book I keep thinking I wish I were a lot younger. Perhaps I could have stood at the summit where Hillary and Tenzing stood one day.

I am currently reading a book (“What I talk about when I talk about running”) by Haruki Murakami, an accomplished writer who is also an avid runner. I am a runner and like him I started running much later in life (around 40). I have run for over two decades now, completed several marathons and an ultra marathon. “Once a runner, always a runner”. I still run just to stay fit. As Murakami writes, I agree that in running (and in life) pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional. Suffering is a state of mind. If you enjoy running, you will endure pain well and not suffer. That’s true with anything in life.