Anyone who's ever tried to tackle a lot of adversity in one sitting often fails – it's like attempting to climb Mt. Everest on your lunch break. My grandmother had a cute little proverb that I still carry in my mind: “How do eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” So wise was her advice I find four years after she's gone I still think back with fondness and regret I didn't listen more.
The picture of the beat up sneakers that is the trademark logo for this extended series actually has a lot of meaning – and they're mine. Those sneakers are probably eight years old and sat in a box for about four years. When I find sneakers I like, I often buy two pair so I'll have a replacement when the first pair wears out. I started wearing this pair back in 2002 and subjected them to minimal use on weekends, so they remained almost new. That changed in the winter of 2003 when I went to Greece , and then made a jump to the country I hope to get stationed in, after the beginning of 2004.
I made those trips on the cheap – my flight from Texas to Athens cost me all of $75.00 (and all of my airline miles), and then a side trip to the other country only $300.00. In both places, I enjoyed the hospitality of good friends. I couldn't have stayed home for a month for that price with utilities, so it was a no-brainer to shut down the house. Mentally, I was also in a bad place and a good friend forced me to get out of the area for a little while and find peace. Sometimes, the best thing about your friends is they can see what you're going through even when you're blind to it.
What does that trip have to do with sneakers? A lot. These sneakers looked brand new before my trip. The right toe got ripped open in Greece as I was climbing up a hill and punctured it with a tree root. The left toe got ripped open in the second country as I was climbing over a pile of rocks at a site with ancient Roman ruins. Of course two good tears into the shoes also pulled the rubber from the toes as well as stressed the sneaker's ability to remain attached to the soles. They have rips on the sides from the many miles I walked.
Those shoes have a lot of good memories tied to them, including losing nearly forty pounds in the process. My “adopted” parents in the second country looked at my sneakers and wanted so desperately to get me a new pair. They took me to a shoe store, but they didn't have my size. I was also sick as a dog that day with the second meanest case of the flu I've ever had. In the space of two hours, I went from being perfectly fine to barely able to get out of the car and into bed.
My sneakers are like old friends with wonderful stories to tell. They may be beat up, but they're still usable. Of course they are drafty and on days when it rains, I've got my own private swimming pool between my toes. They are in awful shape, but I'm not ready to surrender them. I'm not sure if I should burn them like a flag, bury them in a marked grave, or at some point, retire them into a box of memories with their story, to gather dust and cobwebs.
For now, they remain my companions despite their obvious flaws partly because of great sentiment, but mostly because I'm broke. Under the old economics of my life, when I started a workout plan, I would go out and buy new sneakers and clothing for the task. This time, I've got nothing. My workout clothing consists of jeans with little holes starting around the back pockets, so they get along well with my religious sneakers. I figure I'll keep wearing this stuff until the holes get so big, the local police will threaten to arrest me for indecent exposure.
There's another old saying that comes to mind: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step”. As I step into the greatest challenges of my life, there is no better pair of sneakers I would want with me. They took me places I never thought I'd go and emboldened me to believe I could go anywhere and do anything.
Fitness magazines always give the same piece of advice: “when you start a work out plan, hook up with a buddy.” I have two buddies on my feet!
If you don't like trying to find all the segments of this series, you can locate the links to them here and they will return you the exact spot on the socyberty.com site.
quazen.com articles by this writer can be found here
socyberty.com articles can be located here
relijournal.com articles are here
picable.com photographic images are here
