Diary of a bad year
I recently finished reading the authorised biography of Neil Armstrong. Fascinating story, and one that convinces me that man did indeed set foot on the moon, that the first man to do so was quite extraordinary. A modest, intelligent, and humble man. So modest in fact that Armstrong during his 150 minutes on the lunar surface took mostly photos of his partner, Buzz Aldrin, and Aldrin forgot to return the favour. This is tantamount to Edmund Hillary reaching the summit of Everest and coming back with a bunch of pictures of Tenzing, and Tenzing taking a few shots of bootprints, and Hillary's gloves. Except, the moon was a far greater feat than Everest.
You may have wondered, as I have, why Armstrong has remained modestly out of the limelight for all these years. Some suspect, as I once did, that Armstrong never really set foot on another world. I now - think - I understand his resistance. Armstrong feels uncomfortable taking credit for stepping onto the moon when he feels 400 000 people participated to get him there. He has a point. But people also rightly wanted to celebrate arguably our greatest moment.
Janet Armstrong divorced her husband for perhaps the same reason - his stubborn by-the-book way of doing things. Right is perhaps not always good. And people probably deserve to have their faith rewarded - as Batman says in The Dark Knight. How does this license pertain to religion? To fighting wars, where people's faith in the nation, or the religion, is used as a license to conduct atrocities. As soon as we pretend to act on behalf of another, or seek to dominate another, we step into trouble. The most, and best we ought ever to try to do is to honor our own hearts and hope others will like it. Some won't. Some like us might.
Whereas the slave fears only pain, the free man fears shame more than anything... - Demosthenes
It may help to think of suicide bombings as a response, of a somewhat despairing nature, against American (and Israeli) achievements in guided technology far beyond the capacities of their opponents...the truth is that Al Qaida has been more or less destroyed and what we see today are terror attacks by autonomous groups of Muslim radicals...the US administration is, perhaps deliberately, exaggerating the dangers faced by the public. - JM Coetzee
While it may seem an odd time to wage a war, in fact, the West is particularly weak now, and there is a risk that the conflict in Gaza could draw in other opportunists, among them Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan and North Korea. This would draw in the USA and its allies and a lot of scores could be settled. It is not a theatrical exercise I encourage, but I believe the principal actors are kicking their heels to get on stage.
There is, right now, profound unease in the people of the so-called democracies around the world. We sense how flimsy the veneer is when we see our own governments setting aside their own moralities - sometimes on our behalf.
What are we to do as the dark night settles, and we begin to feel the strain? It would be good if we could, at least, count on our fellow man, or at least on a sizable fraction of people, to hold their cool, to keep their heads. I can assure you that those people are not the fatsos and the shoppers, not the kids at bars and dance clubs, not the glamour girls and the guys driving hot cars with the tops down. The solid folk might be farmers, or athletes, or teachers. They are wired in terms of their limbs, they have a resolve that has been tested before.
So unlike one of the commentators out there, I recommend you develop your mind muscles, your discipline. I do concur that we need, all of us, to become activists in our own interests. Simple things count - like taking canvass bags to the store instead of expecting plastic. And buying more of what we need and less of what we want.
Exercise. Here is what I did this year (below) and same time last year (bottom-most graph).
Note just under 21 hours in mid-October, 9:33 in early November, and 10:05 this week. Not huge figures but an improvement on the trickle of training during the same period last year. I need to be building on the current week's training to 12 hours this week, and 14 and week following. In February I need to get in a 20 hour week, and in March, 2 x 20.
I hope to do the Ironman in April 2009, in part as a metaphor for the sort of will and strength I intend to have this year and from now on. Good luck with the view from wherever you are, and wherever you will be going this year.
More: Let’s all resolve to make our country a better place
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