Today America is celebrating the biggest and boldest of all its major holidays, for it is the 4th of July, American Independence day. There will be flag waving and barbecues from coast to coast. People are getting out early in their cars and are heading for beaches and parks and playgrounds. This year it is taking place smack dab in the middle of the work week so it will be the briefest possible of celebratory breaks in this busy country. For tomorrow everyone will have to get back to work once again.
There will be some people of course for which today will represent something other than sunscreen and sandwiches. For deep within the exterior of things both large and small is usually some purpose and vision that is not so easily noticed by those who simply don’t take the time to really look.
Just like the run taking place here, America itself has deep and powerful inner qualities, that resonate and sparkle within the fabric of American life. Critics will always be able to catalog a lengthy list of the shortcomings of America just as if you try you can find fault with any other country, with yourself most certainly, and for a hopeless few even be critics of God.
Sri Chinmoy spent most of his life living in America for he felt that from this special vantage point here the Supreme could manifest in and through him countless visionary projects that would help inspire and uplift the entire world.
In 1976 his Liberty Torch project began here, and like nearly all of his brand new creations it would eventually expand and grow into something even vaster and all encompassing.
In 1987 that vision expanded beyond the shores of America and became global with the creation of the Peace Run.
You can keep the spirit of the Peace Run burning throughout the length and breadth of the world if you can imagine that each time you take a step, you are offering to the Supreme a new joy. With each step you are taking, feel that you are placing a new flower of beauty, purity and divinity at the Feet of our Lord Beloved Supreme. I am using the word ‘imagine’, but it is not imagination; it is reality itself.
Sri Chinmoy, Sri Chinmoy Answers, Part 17, Agni Press, 1999.
Dear Readers please note that there will be a brief period of no new posts. I appreciate your tireless support and humbly ask for your patience as well.
Dawn will bring a damp surprise to the race as just after 6am showers roll in. Later the day will be hot and bright.
Start Day 17
There are many sports in which an athlete has a very limited amount of time in which to be the best in the world. Back in 1987 a young 16 year old American swimmer named Janet Evans burst onto the world stage by breaking 3 world records in freestyle swimming in the 400, 800, and 1500. Longer distances that are considered particularly grueling to train for and even harder to set records at. As swimmers careers goes hers was lengthy and distinguished. It saw her medaling at 2 Olympic games in 1988 and then again in 1992. When the games in Atlanta came around she once again made the team and was given the honor of carrying the Olympic torch into the stadium and handing it to boxing legend Muhammed Ali. When she did not medal in 1996 most people thought that would be the end of her competitive career.
This summer she attempted something really unbelievable. At the age of 40 and the mother of 2 children she attempted to once again make the team in both the 400 meters and the 800 meters. Something unprecedented in American swimming and just maybe anywhere. At the end of the day she did not succeed in her courageous attempt. More importantly though was the victory she achieved by challenging the myth that older athletes should simply fade away.
“To me, it became about more than making the Olympic team,” she said. “It became about having a life as a mom but also doing something for myself and inspiring others to have the courage to go and do something they’re afraid of doing, something that’s a little bit outside their comfort zone.
“I wanted to swim faster than I swam here, but at the end of the day, that doesn’t matter. It’s about trying something and doing it and being proud of what you have done.”
The runner that interests me the most this morning is of course the lone American in the field Arpan. The last 4 days he has had to battle shin splints a stubborn adversary at the best of times but certainly one that just may be a little more challenging when you are a couple of weeks shy of turning 60.
As we run past the Enthusiasm Awakeners singing group they are singing a song called “All Your Grace,” which just happened to be the song that Sri Chinmoy composed on this very day in 2007. On the tape you can hear him singing it along with the girls and then gradually the music fades away, but not the grace and inspiration that put Arpan back on the course after 8 years. Sometime today he will make 1000 miles. A nice number certainly, maybe not the one he would like to see up on the board right now but still a significant achievement.
All Your Grace, all Your Grace,
All Your Grace, all Your Grace,
My Lord Beloved Supreme!
All Your Grace, all Your Grace,
My soul and I are able to join
In Your birthless and deathless Race.
Self-Transcendence 3,100-Mile Race Songs
We come around by the counters and he hears the counter say 7 laps. “Wow 7. I have done better than I have done in about 5 days.”
He talks then about the Declaration of Independence. “I think it is something that we should all try and understand. I think in modern times it is just a day to party and picnic. I don’t think too many people reflect on the meaning of it.”
“For us here, for me any way it means that I try and feel some kind of appreciation for how the country was founded and try to grow up in some 200 plus years.”
I mention that just after we last spoke shin splints had made a new and unwelcome presence in his life here. “Luckily it is only the left leg. If it was both legs I don’t know whether or not I would have been able to go on.”
“Shin splints, the ones I got were very very debilitating. Like being stabbed in the lower leg every time you put your foot down, and you have to do that for 16 to 18 hours. So I had to take care of it do a lot of resting and icing, walking I couldn’t run. I am just starting to jog slowly today, and appreciate it.”
“It took a lot of mental endurance. Psychological endurance and spiritual kind of surrender. But I am coming out of it and I am feeling happy. Yesterday I finally improved my mileage. Which isn’t nearly enough but it is getting there.”
Getting an adjustment from Dr. Mitch Proffman
I ask why he thinks runners here have to go through such difficulties. “I don’t know. Each person has his own role to play. It could be a personality thing, it could be a physical ailment. It could be something that a person has to psychologically and spiritually has to go through.”
But the race magnifies your defects as well as your strengths. You can see that in each person. Unfortunately my defects were stronger than my strengths. But I think it is changing now.” (laughs)
At this point Sarvagata breezes by. “I have guys like Sarvagata to pull me along. I try to feel oneness with all their strengths, that I see around me, and it gives me inspiration to keep going.”
Click to play interview
One of the counters this morning is Svetlana who was inspired to run 50 km yesterday
Grahak and Pradeep perform a joke
The always appreciative fans
On a completely different bitter sweet note, Sopan announced that due to his groin injury he would be not be continuing once he makes 1000 miles later today.
Beauty is here and there if you look for it.
Poem of the Day recited by Parvati
 |
 |
| Enthusiasm AwakenersClick to playparvati2 |  |
Every step I take ahead
Is indeed the fulfillment
Of a new promise
Of my heart.
Sri Chinmoy, Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, Part 192, Agni Press, 1993.
I just wanted to send love to the spirit of 3100 mile race and that I pray for the glorious completion of this endless race. As a reminder a text of how Surasa the great last year overcame all her ailments, this interview is amazing:
At the end of its life the Phoenix bird would go to its nest, and once there, be consumed by flames. It is a mythological bird and its story seems to exist in many cultures with some variations.
What is similar throughout all the variations of the tale is how, once it is reduced to ashes, it rises up again to take flight. It somehow lives again as it did before.
Surasa has amazingly reappeared on the course again this morning. Maybe not rising out of the ashes, and certainly not immortal, but just perhaps maybe unstoppable, as she refuses to give up her flight of self transcendence.
“I am just trying to see if I can walk properly. I like to be here and to be out, and not to lie down. I just came and I will try and see if it gets better.
The first Doctor said that it was a very deep muscle inside my calf and it was injured, and I have to rest for 3 days. Then I should see her and she would tell me if I can walk or run.
After this I thought, I have to try everything.” Then she visited a local auyervedic Doctor who gave her some pills and a massage oil. “Ahh, in 3 or 4 hours you can run.” (Laughter) “And I was looking at him, hunnh? He was absolutely sure, yes. Of course. In 3 or 4 hours you will run.”
After this she went home and applied the oil, took the pills, and came back to the race. So she continued. Not flying, not running, but at least she is walking. “What can I do? You have to take it and accept it. That’s life.”