Pretty sure I evaded the dreaded swine flu, but between allergies and a cold, I've been absolutely knocked out!
Last week I just benched 4,320 pounds and biked 33 miles.
TOTAL
Ran - 40.5 miles
Biked - 163 miles
Benched - 39,380 pounds
Raised - $355
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Remembering Emmett Till
This past week, I taught a class of 10th grade students about Emmett Till, the fourteen-year-old boy who was tortured and killed in 1954, just for being black and overstepping Mississippi's outrageous racial codes. Till's death, his murderers' shamelessness, the joke of the trial that occurred - all of it's tragic. It's clear that the Till case energized the Civil Rights Movement not just because it was shocking, though, but because it represented a way of life, a way that had to go. This was a time and place when white people could abuse the rights of others in just about any way, because it was understood that others were less human, less deserving, less worthy. The brothers-in-law that killed Emmett Till actually implied that in doing so, they preserved a way of life associated with the so-called purity and superiority of their race.
Teaching Till made me think of Southeast Asia today. As despicable as the murder of a child for saying, "Bye, baby," so too is the enslavement of children, sometimes in brothels in order to be serially raped. This ravages the child, enriches the captor, and supplies the rapist (or shall I be polite? The "john"?) with a kind of exotic perversion. Beyond this, though, I wonder if a whole way of thinking is represented. In this enslavement we have a mindset that says humans can be owned, that men's sexual appetites can be fulfilled in any manner, and that children are nothing; they can be trampled upon.
Biked 47 miles this week and benched 4320 pounds one day.
TOTAL
Ran - 40.5 miles
Biked - 130 miles
Benched - 35,060 pounds
Teaching Till made me think of Southeast Asia today. As despicable as the murder of a child for saying, "Bye, baby," so too is the enslavement of children, sometimes in brothels in order to be serially raped. This ravages the child, enriches the captor, and supplies the rapist (or shall I be polite? The "john"?) with a kind of exotic perversion. Beyond this, though, I wonder if a whole way of thinking is represented. In this enslavement we have a mindset that says humans can be owned, that men's sexual appetites can be fulfilled in any manner, and that children are nothing; they can be trampled upon.
Biked 47 miles this week and benched 4320 pounds one day.
TOTAL
Ran - 40.5 miles
Biked - 130 miles
Benched - 35,060 pounds
Saturday, April 25, 2009
The Little Things
My wife and I went to a really well-produced arts benefit show tonight. There were dozens of performers, hundreds in the audience, and thousands of dollars raised for two good causes, one of which was our very own Love 146. The show had its ups and downs for me, but there was lots to write home about, except that I won't. Because my mind was on two things - food and my kids.
The food part is easy. I gardened all day today and most of yesterday. Gardening doesn't have a macho reputation of, say, power lifting for straining your muscles, but it should. At least at my age. Digging, raking, mulching, and the like really wore me down. I'll call it landscaping; that sounds tougher. Anyway, I missed dinner tonight, I was ravenous, and there was loads of good food, almost entirely in bite sized portions, in the lobby of this show. So I listened, and I watched, but often, I thought about food.
My kids are more complicated. I'm crazy about my three children, but I'm also usually glad to have a night out with my wife, with my kids in the care of a sitter. Especially a free one, like tonight. But my kids had to largely amuse themselves today while my wife and I went to work transforming our yard and getting sun stroke in April. Something in my gut also told me as I was leaving home that I should stay behind and put the kids to bed and just let my wife go out. But, as is too often the case, I didn't listen to my gut, and I was kind of irritable all night, missing the little guys and gal. They were fine, as it turned out, but missed us badly.
I want to have something deep to say about the show tonight. A number of aspects explicitly related to child sex trafficking, including a powerful monologue on the topic and some other art that hit on the themes more obliquely. Really, though, I've just had food and children on the mind. I guess no matter how large our vision, when it comes down to it, our own nourishment and our loved ones are central to human existence.
Then how dare those traffickers rob children from their loved ones, deprive them of the nourishment their souls need, and defile the very concept of love. That the world would be rid of this crime, and the children have the right to a night where all they think about is great food and their own beloved children....
Ran 2 miles on Thursday, 3.5 yesterday and 4 today.
TOTAL
Ran - 40.5 miles
Biked - 83 miles
Benched - 30,740 pounds
The food part is easy. I gardened all day today and most of yesterday. Gardening doesn't have a macho reputation of, say, power lifting for straining your muscles, but it should. At least at my age. Digging, raking, mulching, and the like really wore me down. I'll call it landscaping; that sounds tougher. Anyway, I missed dinner tonight, I was ravenous, and there was loads of good food, almost entirely in bite sized portions, in the lobby of this show. So I listened, and I watched, but often, I thought about food.
My kids are more complicated. I'm crazy about my three children, but I'm also usually glad to have a night out with my wife, with my kids in the care of a sitter. Especially a free one, like tonight. But my kids had to largely amuse themselves today while my wife and I went to work transforming our yard and getting sun stroke in April. Something in my gut also told me as I was leaving home that I should stay behind and put the kids to bed and just let my wife go out. But, as is too often the case, I didn't listen to my gut, and I was kind of irritable all night, missing the little guys and gal. They were fine, as it turned out, but missed us badly.
I want to have something deep to say about the show tonight. A number of aspects explicitly related to child sex trafficking, including a powerful monologue on the topic and some other art that hit on the themes more obliquely. Really, though, I've just had food and children on the mind. I guess no matter how large our vision, when it comes down to it, our own nourishment and our loved ones are central to human existence.
Then how dare those traffickers rob children from their loved ones, deprive them of the nourishment their souls need, and defile the very concept of love. That the world would be rid of this crime, and the children have the right to a night where all they think about is great food and their own beloved children....
Ran 2 miles on Thursday, 3.5 yesterday and 4 today.
TOTAL
Ran - 40.5 miles
Biked - 83 miles
Benched - 30,740 pounds
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Still truckin...
Yesterday was Marathon Monday in these parts. I love watching the leaders and for the first time, I really thought about running next year. Maybe I'll raise money to end child trafficking if I run the marathon as part of my efforts.
Benched 3915 pounds on Saturday and Monday. Ran 6 miles on Monday.
TOTAL
Ran - 31 miles
Biked - 83 miles
Benched - 30,740 pounds
Benched 3915 pounds on Saturday and Monday. Ran 6 miles on Monday.
TOTAL
Ran - 31 miles
Biked - 83 miles
Benched - 30,740 pounds
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Go Ahead -- Follow the Rules but Let 'Em Drown!
The past two times I took my children to the local pool, someone almost drowned. Both days I swam with my children in a small pool with a paid lifeguard on duty. Both days the lifeguards vigorously enforced the pool's rules - no running, no children in the hot tub, and so forth. And both days, when one of my boys walked into water over their head and thrashed about gasping for air, the lifeguards didn't notice and didn't even stir in their seats.
In some ways, this scene reminds me of well-informed liberal America. Most people in the circles I run have highly developed, acceptable opinions about the world we live in. They can speak forcefully global health care inequity, public health disparities in the United States, or the root causes of East African piracy. My friends and acquaintances tend to carefully cultivate and express right opinions. They know the rules!
But I wonder if when a child is drowning, they notice or stir. My pastor sometimes says that God couldn't care less about our opinions, that our actions are of much greater import. I couldn't agree more. I really don't care what opinions I have, or anyone else has, about child sex trafficking. I want us to stop it!
Thursday I biked 14 miles. Yesterday I biked 8 and ran 6.
TOTAL
Ran - 25 miles
Biked - 83 miles
Benched - 22,910 pounds
Raised - $315
In some ways, this scene reminds me of well-informed liberal America. Most people in the circles I run have highly developed, acceptable opinions about the world we live in. They can speak forcefully global health care inequity, public health disparities in the United States, or the root causes of East African piracy. My friends and acquaintances tend to carefully cultivate and express right opinions. They know the rules!
But I wonder if when a child is drowning, they notice or stir. My pastor sometimes says that God couldn't care less about our opinions, that our actions are of much greater import. I couldn't agree more. I really don't care what opinions I have, or anyone else has, about child sex trafficking. I want us to stop it!
Thursday I biked 14 miles. Yesterday I biked 8 and ran 6.
TOTAL
Ran - 25 miles
Biked - 83 miles
Benched - 22,910 pounds
Raised - $315
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Hope
Yesterday I wore my "Tread on Trafficking" T-shirt to work to raise awareness and remind colleagues to give! The responses I got were interesting. Both adults and teens I spent time with saw the message on the shirt and were familiar with the problem of human trafficking. Most new that it was a huge problem. Many new that it was the second biggest profit-producing criminal activity on earth. All thought it should be stopped. (That reminds me of a comment I made to a friend once. I said that ending child sex trafficking is one issue that all people can get behind. And then he gave me a look and said, "Well, not all people." There are the perpetrators - the men that exploit the children through abducting, enslaving, or raping them. I'm guessing they're not reading this blog, though, or working with me, though one never knows, I suppose.)
Anyway, what fewer folks seem to know is that you can actually do something about it.
Love 146 works on the ground, in the US and in Southeast Asia, to prevent at risk youth from falling into the industry and to educate individuals and families. They also provide aftercare in Southeast Asia to girls rescued from sex slavery. And here, the money counts a lot. It pays for new aftercare homes, for street workers, for education for families of young children who might end up in this industry if their community doesn't know to protect them.
We can help. Give!
Biked 10 miles Monday, 8 yesterday, and 17 today.
TOTAL
Ran - 19 miles
Biked - 69 miles
Benched - 22,910 pounds
Raised - $315
Anyway, what fewer folks seem to know is that you can actually do something about it.
Love 146 works on the ground, in the US and in Southeast Asia, to prevent at risk youth from falling into the industry and to educate individuals and families. They also provide aftercare in Southeast Asia to girls rescued from sex slavery. And here, the money counts a lot. It pays for new aftercare homes, for street workers, for education for families of young children who might end up in this industry if their community doesn't know to protect them.
We can help. Give!
Biked 10 miles Monday, 8 yesterday, and 17 today.
TOTAL
Ran - 19 miles
Biked - 69 miles
Benched - 22,910 pounds
Raised - $315
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Paschal Greetings!
Happy Easter, Happy Passover. Family's here, so I won't write. More this week.
Ran 4.5 miles today.
Benched 4,015 pounds
TOTAL
Ran - 19 miles
Biked - 34 miles
Benched - 22,910 pounds
Raised - $315
Ran 4.5 miles today.
Benched 4,015 pounds
TOTAL
Ran - 19 miles
Biked - 34 miles
Benched - 22,910 pounds
Raised - $315
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