The First Day of Fall



          "To enrich the earth I have sowed clover and grass

to grow and die. I have plowed in the seeds

of winter grains and various legumes,

their growth to be plowed in to enrich the earth.

I have stirred into the ground the offal

and the decay of the growth of past seasons

and so mended the earth and made its yield increase.

All this serves the dark. Against the shadow

of veiled possibility my workdays stand

in a most asking light. I am slowly falling

into the fund of things. And yet to serve the earth,

not knowing what I serve, gives a wideness

and a delight to the air, and my days

do not wholly pass. It is the mind's service,

for when the will fails so do the hands

and one lives at the expense of life.

After death, willing or not, the body serves,

entering the earth. And so what was heaviest

and most mute is at last raised up into song."

- Wendell Berry



  I've been waiting for this day since May,

David

Why Do You Write?

   The author, Laura Hillenbrand, who wrote Seabiscuit and Unbroken, was recently asked what would happen if she wasn't allowed to write or couldn't write and this was her reply,

  "I think I would perish. I can't imagine not having this thing I still have (being able to write). Other than my husband, I've lost just about everything else. It is tremendously important to my emotional health that I be able to write. I can't be social (due to my health). I can't be out there. The books are my way of communicating with everyone else...."

Why do you write?

David

The Robber Bridegroom--A Book Review

 

  I am no fan of fairy tales. I know what this makes me. I just don't like how predictable they all are. You know what is going to happen even before you open the front cover. I also know that is the point. The fantasy of it all is that you can put yourself into one of the roles and then instead of some other princess or prince, it is you now and the story is your own.  I can see the joy in that. However, I was born a kill-joy and that is not my fantasy, but maybe it is also because I'm a guy. We don't want to be Prince Charming, but rather, we want to be Braveheart.

  However, this story, The Robber Bridegroom, is no regular fairy tale. Eudora Welty takes the plot of a normal fairy tale and she reworks it into something that was interesting and a joy to read all while not being wholly predictable. She does this using a cast of very odd, grotesque, and unique characters. She also sets the story in Mississippi and in Louisiana. Her princess is the daughter of a wealthy cotton farmer and an evil, ugly step-mother. Her prince is a thief who terrorizes people traveling on the Natchez Trace. Her other characters are human, but don't seemed to be because of deformities or other very real oddities. Welty also allows seemingly unbelievable things to occur right out in the open and you find yourself as the reader wanting to believe them and convincing yourself that, "truth really is much stranger and fascinating than fiction". And the way it is written allows one to feel completely wrapped up in the story and wanting several different story lines to unfold, but you are unsure about which way the story is going to go.

  What I liked best about the book was how the characters all evoke a definite emotion from you. You hate the step-mother. You both dislike and feel for the naive father. You cheer for the robber bridegroom, but also despise some of his actions, and ignore his profession. You laugh at the side characters, like Goat and Little Harp, as well as hate them. And lastly, you feel bad for Rosamond, Welty's princess, but at the same time wonder at her actions and find some of them annoying at times.  

    I would highly suggest this book. It is a good, fast, light read. It is also entertaining, which is one of the purposes for literature, right? I have read several reviews of the book on the Net and they all say that the story is stale and the characters are one-dimensional and static. I disagree, but what do I really know. I would encourage you to read this book through the eyes of an amateur reader. I think it would make the few moments you have to read before bed maybe the most enjoyable of your day. I think the reviewers forgot that Welty is a master storyteller and this is a great, original work of fiction.

David

Shin Splints--A Real Pain

     In the twelve or so years that I have been a runner, been around runners, coached runners, and paid attention to the sport of running, I have heard, seen, and experienced a lot of running-related injuries. However, no injury has been more prevalent than that of someone telling me they had to quit running or had to rest because of shin splints. I have never had shin splints (Knock on all the wood in The Smokey Mountains National Park), but have heard and seen how painful they are. I have seen them sideline even the hardiest of running folk. Shin splints can be a runner's worst nightmare.

     Whenever, I have a runner who gets shin splints or friend that has them, two questions always arise from our little conversations and they are: "How do I make the pain go away?", and, "How do I prevent this from ever happening again?". The answers are very simple, but many do not want to follow the advice given. So, this blog post will be some advice mixed in with all you have ever wanted to know about shins and shin splints for those who have never heard about them, for those who have heard about them, but wondered what they were, and those who lie awake at night trying to think of something else.

What is a shin?  

     Your leg is split into two main zones: the thigh and the shin. (I know it is much more complex, but we're keeping things simple.) Your thigh zone is on top and your shin zone is on the bottom. Shin splints occur in the shins. You can have them in both legs at the same time or you may only experience them in a single leg.

What exactly is a shin splint?

Shin splints is pain on the front of the lower leg below the knee and above the ankle. It can hurt over the shin-bone (tibia) or over the muscles on either side of the shinbone. Shin splints is also called shin pain.

Why am I getting shin splints?

   I hear this so often and the reasons are always the same. The usual cause is that the person went from doing no exercise or moving around to trying to make themselves run for miles and they usually do this on hard, concrete pavement. Well, here are some very common reasons why you are going through such pain:

1. Flat feet – most common cause under this category.
2. Over-pronation – generally a result of having flat feet; occurs when foot and ankle roll inward, causing a demanding stretch in the muscles of your lower legs.
3. Tight or stiff lower leg muscles.
4. Poor running form – leaning forward too much, leaning backwards too much, running with your toes pointed too far out, landing on the balls of your feet and not pushing off through your toes after each stride (too much ‘babying’ of the heel to toe transition).
5. Exercising on uneven surfaces.
6. Trying to do too much too soon.
7. Running, walking or exercising on hard surfaces too frequently.
8. Working out in inappropriate shoes or shoes that have lost their support/cushioning.
9. Too much uphill or downhill running.

How can I get rid of the pain?

  The easiest answer is to rest and ice your shins. You should ice them for 15 minute increments and then stretch slowly and easily. It would also help to wear compression socks or get them wrapped by a trainer. And you MUST take it easy.The biggest reason why you get shin splints is that most people ignore the importance of stretching before and after you walk or run. Remember also that it helps to stretch "warm" muscles. These can be acquired by doing a short warm up lap. And here is a diagram of some helpful stretches: 

   The biggest thing that I have learned over the years about injuries is that we all try to over do it everytime we walk out the door trying to maximize every workout. However, this is a terrible idea. Your body can really wear down overtime. Everytime you use new muscles or extend old ones, your muscle tissues acquire little tiny tears that take time to heal. A good workout schedule should include mostly easy days and even a full day off. To help you understand, Olympian Ryan Hall who holds the America record for the half marathon, usually runs races by keeping a 4:20-4:30 miles, but on his easy runs, he keeps the pace at 7:00-7:30. If you do the math, that means he is running a full three minutes slower or more! So, what does that say about your easy days. If an Olympian can take it easy, why can't we?

Hope this post was helpful and stay clear from the shin splints!

David

A Lost Decade

   "A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends."

      George Washington


     A cool, September morning ten years ago, found me rushing to get to ready to go to my 9 o'clock class; Twentieth Century Europe. It was one of those crisp, pre-Fall mornings when you open the windows and pretend Fall is already there. I had spent the morning running in the early morning fog and dew and it seemed like all was right. I got to my apartment, showered, dressed, and was eating breakfast watching the news when everything became not all right. I saw both planes fly into the towers and lost my desire to eat. I walked to my class dazed and zombie-like; what had I just watched? No good answers came to mind. (It seems I am still asking and no good answers have still come up.)
  
    I sat in the upstairs, lone classroom of the Mercer History Department, and acted like I was listening to Dr. Good answer meaningless questions about how the genocide in Darfur was not like the Armenian genocide. A quiet girl in the back asked if we could turn on a t.v. or at least talk about what had just happened. Dr. Good told her no and his reasoning was that he had wasted a whole day on the Oklahoma City bombings and in the end it was just the work of a fringe lunatic and he wasn't going to waste another one. So, we continued to talk about genocide and how they aren't all the same. I still disagree with about everything that was said during those wasted 75 minutes, but now that ten years have passed, I am glad he held us in there; protecting us from what we were about to have to walk out into: a new world where there terror became terrifying and evil took off it's mask and it's face was so much more scarier and worse than that: real.

   The rest of the day is a blur except that at 3 o'clock we had an assembly and I don't remember who spoke or what they said, but what I do remember is what another professor said to me. I sat next to Dr. Klingelhofer and told him how happy I was that I didn't have to get up and say anything and Dr. Klingelhofer told me something I will never forget. He turned sideways in his seat and stared me straight in the eye and said,

     "David, you are a true student of history, right?"
      "Yes, sir. I try to be."
      "I know you are. What happened today is bad, but our country has been through far worse than this. Tomorrow will come and we will be in it and it will need us. Hope is an empty vessel with no one to believe in it. Do you understand?"
       "Yes, sir. Thanks."...

  A full decade has passed and I still wondered and think of it all. It is weird to think that there are children who are walking around that this is all they have known, a country that is till trying to rise from the ash heap, but too irrationally civil and tolerant. The story of the great phoenix of antiquity never tells us how long it took to rise. We have forgotten how to wait. We have forgotten the silver lining in suffering. We have forgotten the taste of hard-earned laurels. We forget that the Revolutionary War lasted 8 years and we came within a fraction of losing. We forget that the Great Depression lasted longer than a year or even ten, that WWII lasted 7 and millions died and that the Civil War lasted 4 and hundreds of thousands of our own countrymen and women died. And that Pearl Harbor was just as frightening or actually even more since a whole nation attacked us, not just a faction from several. 

   I stood at a football game on Friday night and watched a multitude of red, white, and blue balloons and I wept a little. I take this country for granted everyday. I am complacent in my overwhelming freedoms. I don't want it to fly away like those balloons because I was too foolish and let it slide through my fingers. I don't want the next 10 to slip past like these last 10. I know freedom isn't free. I just wish it would cost me and I know that is a scary thought.

  Thank you men and women who protect me and this precious freedom everyday. I wish this didn't sound so cliche because I don't deserve it. You do. You have earned it.

   "We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them."

                          Abigail Adams

David

Some Hump Day Humor

  I don't usually talk much about my students, but I feel we all need a little laugh. Or at least I do. I usually refrain from this type of blog for a multitude of reasons, but some things are too good to keep to myself, so here are some things that my little earlobes have absorbed as of late:

  Two girls talking before class a few days ago:

"Oh, my god, how was your trip to the mountains?"
"It was AAmazing.."
"Where did you like go?"
"My fam always goes to Helen and I just love it."
"Oh my god, did you say Helen? I just love it there!"
"So do I, it is like my little piece of Germany right here!".....

A 7th grade boy talking to another 7th grade boy at his locker:

"Just look at my lunch, I can't believe my mom did this to me."
"Wow...a juice box."
"I know, it makes me feel so childish. It's not like I'm 12 anymore."
"I know right."...

I noticed a sleepy student this morning:

"You okay, Weston? You look a little tired."
"I'm exhausted."
"Rough night, last night?"
"Yeah, had to stay up all the way to 9:30 to finish some homework and my family got lost on the way home from the beach and I didn't get sleep till 10 on Monday."
"Sounds like a pretty rough patch."
"I know, I don't know how much longer I keep going on hardly any sleep."...

A 7th grade girl this morning at the lockers:

"Oh my gosh, has anyone had the oatmeal from McDonald's?"
A multitude of "yeahs"..
"Don't you guys think it is life-changing?"
"Yeah, definitely"....

And some regular questions as of late:

"Do you and your wife, like dissect things for fun at your house?"

"Do you sleep in a bow tie?"

"Do you just wear those glasses for fun? 'Cause I see you at cross country practice and you don't have glasses on."

"Do you and your wife like find things around your house to look at under the microscope just for fun?"

"Mr. Dark, did you know Garth Brooks was a progressive?"
"A progressive? Like Teddy Roosevelt?"
"No, like a liberal."
"Nope, I didn't know that."
"Yeah, he is a big liberal. I just don't know how a guy who sings, "Friends in Low Places", could be a liberal. Do you?"
"I'm not sure Ive ever thought about it like that before."
"Well you better. Before long all these country stars are going to be liberal progressives."
"Really?"
"Yeah, you just watch."....

   Well, I hope you are all making it through this Wednesday and finding something to smile about. If you can't, just look around.

David