I can't get quite as worked up about this guy as some of you are getting, but let's face facts--he's a bit of a loony bin. Doing what he wants? Great! Successful at running? Lovely! Somebody's hero? A delight!
But anyone who shuns the rest of the world and most everyone and everything around him so that he can achieve his own goals is not what I personally would consider, um, a role model. Or a hero.
I would disagree with you that he shuns everyone. I raced him a number of times. He would come over to our group before the race, say hi, warmup with us, kick our butts, and then find us to cool down with. He would always hang out with the other runners often asking to get pictures with them. Loved to talk anything about running.I just think he is a shy guy. Get him talking and he is great. Really anyone that has met him would have nothing but great things to say about him.
goodnightnurse! wrote:
I can't get quite as worked up about this guy as some of you are getting, but let's face facts--he's a bit of a loony bin. Doing what he wants? Great! Successful at running? Lovely! Somebody's hero? A delight!
But anyone who shuns the rest of the world and most everyone and everything around him so that he can achieve his own goals is not what I personally would consider, um, a role model. Or a hero.
I admire a guy who has the courage to organize his life around an activity that gives him so much joy. Most of us cave in to peer pressure or family pressure or to our fears about ending up at the bottom of the rung in society. You can couch Brian Pope's lifestyle as a strength or a weakness, depending on your own values. But it's interesting that so many of us have opinions, positive and negative, about the way the guy leads his life. Brian Pope's lifestyle stirs up a lot of issues in many of us.
"bottom rung" not "bottom of the rung"
I met him after he won the club nats xc a few years ago, and my impression was of a shy guy, but not painfully so, super nice, and who was very appreciative of what he was able to experience as a runner, at least on that day. I tend to think that the confrontation with the hunter was a bit overdrawn for dramatic effect.
That's right - all the runnners who have met him (Pope) report that he is a good guy, and no one has anything bad to say about him.
The confrontation with hunters? He has a history of having to deal with those guys over the years, because that is his training ground, so naturally, he feels somewhat agressive to protect part of his "turf" - yep, I know, it is not his personal property, but the way the hunters ride around and create stress has probably something to do with Pope's antipathy toward those people.
Pope is so focussed on his running, that other areas of his life have taken a backseat, but not having a wife and kids has allowed him the 'luxury' of choosing that mostly solitary path. But he leads, from the reports offered, a kind of monastic/frugal life which many of us could learn something from, wrapped up, as we are, in acquiring so many possessions, only to discard them soon after for newer models.
Others have commented that Pope is not 'productive' to society, but Pope is a good example of a person living a quiet, healthy life, espousing, along the way, good minimalist living habits, difficult to emulate for most materialistic Americans. If Pope is reading this - good luck to him.
Ghost in Korea