Exercise is a great distraction...especially when you are able to add mud as a major component. Tomorrow I am participating in the Dirty Duo Adventure Race, which is advertised as, "a little biking, a little running, and a TON of mud!"
Its a 6 mile course alternating running & mountain biking, followed by a 40 ft pit of mud you have to crawl through on your belly. Should be interesting. Fortunately, I will have the support of my trusted friend, Jason Gant, which together makes us team Shake n Bake!
So if you have nothing better to do tomorrow morning, here's directions to the KC Speedway to cheer us on! Race starts at 9am sharp. And there are supposed to be some great post-race festivities with music, food, and plenty of cold refreshments. Fun times!
There is a movie that I love, maybe you have seen it - The Shawshank Redemption. It is the story of Andy, a man who is falsely convicted of murder and sent to prison where he is punished due to no fault of his own. There he becomes friends with a man named Red, who has been in prison for many years and is seasoned in the ways of incarceration and knows how to work the system.
The interesting thing is at first, Red takes on the role of mentor to Andy, teaching him the ways of the prison, how to survive, who to avoid, how to surrender to the inevitable that this is now the only existence that Andy will ever know. Red not only teaches, but encourages Andy to become institutionalized, to let go of any illusions of hope and to accept the reality that they have no control over their lives anymore.
Yet as their friendship grows, it is Red who then becomes the student, as he begins to see in Andy a strength that will not be beaten down or forfeited, not to the warden, not to the other inmates, nor to the institution itself. But no matter how hard Andy tries to convince Red that hope does, in fact, remain - and that is the one thing the institution can never take away - Red does not seem to understand, which leads us to this scene:
(Spoiler Alert) Red feared that Andy exercised the one and only thing he could control...and that was how to end his life. That was the only option Red could fathom. Red was not able to see beyond his delusions, beyond the false reality he had built in order to protect himself from being vulnerable in fear of being hurt yet again.
But as it turns out, Andy was able to escape from the prison, from all the things that held him captive, because he had a hope that could not be taken away. And by doing that, by Andy breaking through all of that bondage, he provided the catalyst for Red to experience an awakening. Maybe what Red thought what was true was, in fact, mere deception. Maybe there is something beyond these walls of imprisonment. Maybe, just maybe, there is a thing called hope. Red eventually gets released, and is faced with a choice...to get busy living, or get busy dying.
Now, I ask myself...which one of these men am I? Am I going to be like Red, allowing my circumstances to construct a wall around me so that any ounce of hope or feeling I may have is slowly extinguished with each piece of brick and each spade of mortar? Do I desire to merely survive? Or - am I going to be like Andy, who does not let his circumstances beat him, who continues to feel and live - even at the risk of being hurt again? Now Red does eventually choose to live, but how much did he sacrifice? Am I willing to sacrifice as much as he did, or am I willing to risk again? Am I going to get busy living, or get busy dying (in an emotional, spiritual way...not a physical, literal way)?
There are times that I probably would have chosen the latter, but today....right now....I am confident that there is hope, and that hope is indeed a very good thing. And I am confident that it will never die. I choose to live.
