This is one of those days when you can taste the air, just after the rain stops and the leaves on the ground are still soaking. They give off air that tastes so clean you can't help but breathing deep. It's like making tea using maple, oak and birch leaves, or like a hookah without the smoke. It has to be one of the only natural decay processes that smells crisp and fresh. I love running on days like this, if for no other reason that to be able to breath harder.
The world is going to be changing soon. I don't mean change in the obvious way that the world is changing continuously; I mean that the way we live will be very different in the very near future. This is not a rational thought, although I could probably come up with a thousand reasons why, it's just a feeling that has been building strength in my head for quite a while. Quite honestly I don't know what that change is even going to look like, if my gut is correct, but I don't think I'm alone in premonition.
More people than usual in the Arb today, especially for today being so cold, breezy and wet outside. It's a shame that running requires your full breath. I would talk to everybody here if I could. The people that come to the Arb, me included, come here to clear their heads... to get away for a moment from the forced motion of life and taste the unforced motion of nature. The river. The wind. The chipmunks, which are out in force today. I wish I could press a big pause button right now. But my calves are firing in sync and I'm not stopping.
As I recognize the strength of that 'premonition' feeling in my gut, my brain is rationalizing it. Is that because I'm an engineer? Or because I'm a guy? Or just because I'm a human? I don't know. That's a thought for another day. Regardless, I see what I'm feeling. And oddly enough, it's all around me. The leaves and acorns are falling and being carried away by a swelling river. Old trees are dying and falling. Some of the animals won't make it either; the rest are getting out of town. It's the natural cycle of things.
The sun is setting, the temperature is dropping, and my muscles are tightening up. I make a push to get up the long hill on the path back home. Somewhere overhead the hospital's helicopter is flying around. I catch up to another runner going up the hill a little slower. I glance over; she's obviously running on fumes, probably having run a lot further than me. This hill only gets steeper as you go.
The natural cycle of things. Renewal. I believe the human world is at a point of renewal. We've been here before. Old systems are showing obvious weaknesses while new ideas fall like seeds and acorns, ready for spring. It's the economy. It's politics. It's the way people think about the world. The spring that began with the Baby Boomers has had its summer and is on its way out. That generation turned over the previous aging system, injecting values like humanism, corporate responsibility and accountability into the workings of the modern world. I believe the world is due for another round of just that. The snow is already falling.
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