Short Cuts

I was out for a run the other day and it just wasn't going well. My legs felt heavy and perhaps in the back of my mind I was lamenting my lost glory days and briefly allowing myself to dwell on the fact that at least in this I am but a shadow of my former self. As I ran I began to think of corners I could cut and short cuts I could take (no one would know but me, but then again no one would care but me either). The funny thing is that my thought process lead me into a deeper place of reflection on short cuts in general and somehow the running got easier so I ended up runner further in stead of actually taking a short cut.

I am not in favor of doing things the hard way, but I don't appreciate taking the easy way out either. In math for instance, we often seek the short cuts and I just saw a man on TV who is called the "human calculator" because he has perfected the short cut. As I think back on it though I will never forget the lecture I received from my uncle (the math teacher) about the beauty of showing all your work and appreciating a well thought out proof. I was reminded of this lecture the other day as I watched "The Big Bang Theory" where for several minutes they depicted a montage of two physicists staring at a mathematical formula for days (all set to music of course) and I suppose I realized that everything else perception is in the eyes of the beholder. For the person who loves math they can appreciate both the short cut and the long way as much for the ingenuity and creativity it took to come up with the short cut as they do the way it simplifies things and still want to look at it both ways (just for fun). I run and I rarely take the short cut because I am running to run, not to get somewhere faster.

If you can do something better and faster most of the time you should, but sometimes the journey matters more than how you get there and I can respect that too. In life I like to do most things fast, but in my daily living I appreciate the little moments and almost never hurry. My hope is that we don't miss something in the rush and at the same time can be thoughtful enough to remove the obstacles that don't need to be there.