Running marathons is all about adventures and experiences.

But it is more than just that. Running is about showing faith and confidence in the future. It is about having confidence in your own abilities, in your training schedule, and in the quality of the events you choose to participate in. Looking forward to the next marathon experience is embracing the future with trust. It is an act of love. I think this is one of the reasons why running is so popular: it sets a positive mindset !

In general, having Trust and Confidence in your life prepares your future experiences of adventure, of your career, of your relationships and your friendships. You should cultivate your inner (self-) confidence engine every day. You should affirm your values each day. And you should maintain trustworthyness and integrity so others continue to show you confidence. To me, the path away from a strong value set and personal integrity that is a path towards isolation and, ultimately, loss of self. As the famous quote by Blaise Pascal goes:”What is the good of gaining the whole World if you lose your own Soul ?” (elaborating on Matthew 16:26). The reverse is true as well: you immediately lose the World (= the experiences) if you lose your Soul (= your Trust & Conficence).

To elaborate, I think that the lack of Trust and Confidence is psychologically equal to the fatal idea that you should be “denied” access to future adventures and experiences. And could anything be more threatening to man that NOT having access to the so dearly experiences life gives. Right ? I guess this is why we all fear Death so much: not getting to experience anything anymore, to see our kids and loved ones expericence, etc. Isolation is Death as well, perhaps paradoxially drawn from the hinsight of Sartre:”Hell – that is the others“. The others in our own minds. Our own representation of the others. Our own lack of Trust & Confidence. Oh yes, our thoughts are SO important – each one of them !

In these days with the financial crisis, the international terror threat and what have you, Anxiety flurish. In the Danish media we read about men of great former wealth commiting suicide as a response to the loss your their materialistic – and you could add: extremely spoiled – bases. Is the power of disbelief and self-invented shame really so strong that you will kill yourself to it ? Is the lack of confidence in “a future” that pathologic ? I find it very sad ! But I also have to note that these stories confirm what I have always suspected: that real strength is not connected to the roles people play in the modern society. Roles are often given by appointment. True strength is a quality of the soul and the intellect that no company hierarchies or birthgiven luxuries can shape or maintain for real.

Indeed, in times of opposition true and sound values will prevail. Indeed, people will reconnect to universal and “pure” values. To me, running is one of them, i.e. being in the Nature and being physically active with one self and others, either in play or in sound competition.

Indeed, the stronger kind of Man will continue to display Trust in the future and to seek new experiences.

I will do so too – running !

I see and speak from a point you will never understand. I see and speak with hinsights you should be happy not to ever know. I see and speak from the dark.

Let me give you a glimse. Aged 27 my mother commited suicide. I was 3 years old. Turbulent times followed to put it mildly, as this crime left my father and the rest of my family devastated, no wonder. Aged 7, I witnessed the death struggle of my father, dying 31 years old to a heart condition. This loss came as no surprise, I had “seen” it happen weeks in advance. It was a logical consequence of events. I was “deported” to a loveless fate at a hostfamily in another part of the country and this misery went on for 5 years. Then came almost 7 years on a boarding school, a times a very rough affair with both physical and mental abuses, not in the sexual sense, but still. It wasnt too easy.

All these years I had only one person left to bury – my beloved grandmother. It is now two years ago that I did. I dont think anyone can grasp the consequences of all this, of being the last in the entire family tree. Grasp what kind of feelings I have dealt with. Grasp the enormity of being totally alone in the world. Historically, it can be compared to the survivors of World War II, many of these, by the way, commiting suicide by the burden of their losses. But I hate the concept of being a victim and I ask for no mercy. I just find myself on a special path and find it hard to take many of the “dramas” of the ordinary man too seriously. I am on another scale.

So why live ? It is indeed a very relevant question ! Answers… we all have our own. The interesting thing is whether we have constructed our opinions ourselves or just live by the conventions, by the expectations of our family and partners, and whether we have the courage to live and act accordingly to who we really are and what we really feel. Let me tell you this: everything else is absurd ! You will be under ground soon enough.

Yes, so why not live ? Why not take the risk of being yourself and to accept the consequences. Why not address the important issues in your life and leave the less important behind. Living by fear is a waste of time and life… and we are only here for such a short time anyways. So go for the things you love ! Because love is the light in the dark, and there are so many things to love indeed. For me, running is one of them.