Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Smiles Amidst Insanity

Smile. I Want To Smile

The year closes today. In a sense, I am happy. In a blink of a second look I am sad. Today is hard. Perspective is skewed. Gaza is being bombed, people are dying, and the ball is preparing to lower high above Time Square. Party people gather. Soldiers take cover.

In the words of Dicken's, "It was the best of times and it was the worst of times."

What was it for you? The contrast of emotions dangle in my mind. As the year ticks its last second, in 2009, I want a greater and more accurate perspective of life, joy, hope, kindness, grace, mercy, and [you fill in the blank here.]

I want my eyes to lock into hope with the trained eye of a sniper. I want the scope to be so focused on what I do, that despite the hopelessness and despair that I see, I can still find life more abundantly.

I stumbled on to a photo essay called "Smiles."



I wanted to smile. As I clicked through and viewed the essay of images, the photographer accomplished to bring a greater perspective to the place you and I live.

Smiles Amidst Insanity

Essential statement: No Matter Your Living Conditions, Smile.



Until the next time,

Jharp

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Unexpected Honor


Angela always sends me creative links to things "Jason Harper Minded." A couple days ago she connected me to a guy that was wanting to interview people who worked on the mental side of running as well as the physical training.

I don't intentionally sit down and focus on running. I don't sit down and do mental repetitions. But I do focus on outcome. I do conscientiously seek to avoid any negotiations between my mind and my will. I let them battle it out. I steer clear.


So I connected with Tom Trush. Tom runs a website that build audio coaching for runners. Essentially, he interviews people, then mixes the interview down. He pushes it out to runners so they can listen and learn how to run, while they run.

Heart felt stories, stories of hope, and lessons learned are his focus.

We talked for an hour. At the end, he asked me what was the next summit of my running journey? Frozen, I answered. Little did I know the interview would be posted so quickly.

My plans may have been leaked. So rather than dodging it, I want to affirm that I am started to dream about what is next. But, I remain committed about not committing to anything until January.

Here is the interview if you are interested:

Running Audio Interviews Me On Next Adventure

Until then, Happy Christmas and Merry New Year.

JAS

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Dead and Not Noticed

I remember watching Collateral, a movie with Tom Cruise (Vincent, the hitman) and Jamie Fox (Max, the cab driver). BK reminded me of this scene.
[Approx 15 min into the movie] Max picks Vincent up at the airport and this conversation rolls out.





Max: First time in L.A.?
Vincent: No. Tell you the truth, whenever I'm here I can't wait to leave. It's too sprawled out, disconnected. You know? That's me. You like it?
Max: It's my home.
Vincent: 17 million people. This is got to be the fifth biggest economy in the world and nobody knows each other. I read about this guy who gets on the MTA here, dies.
Max: Oh.
Vincent: Six hours he's riding the subway before anybody notices his corpse doing laps around L.A., people on and off sitting next to him. Nobody notices.

But reality is much worse than fiction....Consider this story from a NY hospital...
In Plain Sight, A Woman Dies Unassisted on Hospital Floor



A security guard looks on. Image via NYCLU

On June 19, a woman collapsed and lay face down on the floor of the waiting room at a Brooklyn hospital for an hour before anyone checked on her. By that time, she was dead. When a surveillance video was released showing the whole incident, that the media took notice. A video shows several other patients and a few security guards looking on. [Site Source: Link]

BUT IT GETS EVEN WORSE

A Croatian woman sat dead in front of TV for 42 years....

The remains of a woman have been found sitting in front of her TV - 42 years after she was reported missing. Hedviga Golik, who was born in 1924, had apparently made herself a cup of tea before sitting in her favourite armchair in front of her black and white television. Croatian police said she was last seen by neighbors in 1966, when she would have been 42 years old. Her neighbors thought she had moved out of her flat in the capital, Zagreb. But she was found by police who had broken in to help the authorities establish who owned the flat.

"When officers went there, they said it was like stepping into a place frozen in time.

"The cup she had been drinking tea from was still on a table next to the chair she had been sitting in and the house was full of things no one had seen for decades. Nothing had been disturbed for decades, even though there were more than a few cobwebs in there." [Site Source: Link]

THIS LEAVES ME JACKED UP ON SO MANY LEVELS.

They say the worst form of punishment is solitary confinement. Essentially, isolation.

Un-noticed. Dead in plain site on a hospital floor.

Alone. Dead in her own apartment and not even missed, much less found for more than four decades.

Think about how many people are alone. Maybe they are surrounded in an existence of humanity, but still they feel alone. The bottom line is we are better with each other. We are better in community together.

I live by the approach to life that is pretty simple. Invest, Invite, Include.

Invest in the physical needs of others.
Invite people into the world I call mine.
Include others on the journey to "there."

Look around. Find those alone and reach. You will be glad you did.

Think,

JHARP