The Costume

It’s a pretty funny line. I have heard it a few times. It goes something like this; “Other than running, how are things going?” The obvious implication is that all I write about is running. If you pay attention to what I write, you know that the opposite is true.

There is a university in Israel called Bar-Ilan. Their logo is a microscope with the scope made from a torah scroll. Their goal, they maintain, is to look at the world through the eyes of the Torah. A perceptive reader might suggest that my symbol should be a microscope partially made from a running shoe. Although this imaginary reader would be correct that I write about running, this is only superficially true.

When I write, running is just the outer shell, the costume I put on, as I attempt to convey my inner thoughts. Although I really enjoy running, I am not interested in writing about it. I want to write about life; its challenges, its meaning, its complexities. So why do I use running, a subject that at times, I must admit, I must awkwardly twist to connect to my subject? The answer, I suspect, connects to the costumes we all don, the ones we wear to cover ourselves, hiding ourselves from the world, and often from ourselves.