Running with Libertarians

For Labor Day weekend we journeyed to Athens; the kids started school this past week, on Tuesday the good work begins again for the residency program at Great Lakes. For now, grilling and relaxing and drinking a little too much. I did not need that second Margarita last night (having already enjoyed two beers prior to that happy occasion) and going to sleep in fairly muggy discomfort on an air mattress with the commencement of a headache, I knew I would be waking with a hangover.

And yet. I had four glasses of water and four Ibuprofen and lay on my back with a cold cloth on my forehead to bring down the swelling, and woke in the middle of the night feeling pretty all right.

We had invited some friends down from Cleveland to join us; they had come for Thanksgiving last year and may have been more excited about spending time at my in-laws places than we were. Our kids were friends in pre-school and we’ve stayed in good contact over the years now that the children have grown. Chris asked if I still run, if I was planning to run, and if he could join me. So, uh, yeah, all right, I guess.

Running is a ritual that involves getting down with my disco self and my badass playlists, but running with a partner, occasionally, can be a good thing. The pacing is better, it is generally more interesting, having conversation slows you down in a good way, and there’s always a good excise to walk.

His running kit was amazing. Cotton T-shirt, cut-off jeans with boxers (ouch) and a pair of ten year-old sneakers with no socks.

I got to know Chris latest of their unit of four, he travels a lot and basically doesn’t like to come downtown. Last fall they joined us for some Oscar Wilde at Great Lakes, and he struck me as not so much bored as distressed at the concept of seeing a play. Then there’s the politics thing. I don’t generally relate well to libertarians. They ask too many questions -- “But don’t you think ..?” “If that’s the case, then ..?” And they have a general distrust of government that switches me off as much as anyone who has a general mistrust of religion. You can’t just write off any species of communal organizational unit that most of humanity is inevitably drawn to.

What I have come to admire about Chris is his open-mindedness, his begrudging optimism, and his sense of humor. This morning’s run turned out to be really enjoyable. And lunch was hilarious, and he wasn’t even drinking.

Distance: 4.25 miles
Temperature: 68º