Once a runner? wrote:
I want to pull some hybrid Walden/Once a Runner move and run run on dirt roads, ATV trails and bike paths. I'm sure you can find a place out in rural central PA without a soul in sight. My job lets me work remote so I'd just need access to the internet.
Is this an archetypal fantasy that young, isolated Western men subscribe to? When I was younger, I harbored similar fantasies about a retreat into nature, using isolation and the perceived slights against what was an insecure and introspective young man to fuel a period of dedicated training and subsequent transformation. Once I returned to society I would "reemerge" with some grand entrance via a race or social gathering. Everyone would be amazed, the girls I obsessed over would finally realize my worth, and the rest of my life, my halcyon days would begin in earnest.
I think only later, once you've looked at your life in the context of the world and your relationship to your local community, do you realize no one cares. Not out of cruelty or indifference, but simply because we're all the heroes of our own stories. No one really cares about you or your results besides yourself, not on any meaningful level anyway. It's only after we have this realization where we truly stand a chance at living a second more contented life that becomes filled with intrinsic meaning, even if it isn't outwardly glamorous or impressive.