George Sheehan was a regular columnist for Runner’s World magazine, and a collection of his essays is in my small group of “keeper” books.   Dr. George, as I tend to think of him, was not so much an athlete as an intellectual who found running as a vehicle for enlivening his intellect.  And what an intellect he had.  While Dr. George and I have many differences (he a skinny, tall introvert; me a short, quick extrovert), we share a love of running and of ideas that will make us “simpatico” forever.

            Here are some “snippets” from his collection of essays in Personal Best

p.30

We lead lives inferior to ourselves, said philosopher William James – lives that don’t reflect our real ability.  One reason we do: It’s more comfortable  But life is, or should be, a struggle: Comfort should make us uncomfortable; contentment should make us discontented. 

p. 31

Exercise deficiency – the sweat deficit – is a self-inflicted disease.  It is an old and familiar story: Our greatest tendency is to cheat on ourselves.  We think we can enjoy the fullness of life without paying for it.  But that is not the way the world works – or the human machine, either.  Nothing is free.

p. 35

“The easiest way to preserve health and with greater profit than all other measures put together is to exercise well.”  So wrote Cristobal Mendez in his Exercise Book, published in 1553.  Nothing has changed in the interim.  Exercise is and always will be the single best thing to do about your health.  Like charity, exercise covers a multitude of sins.

p. 67

            While out on the roads, I am engaged in what Aquinas called man’s highest activity – contemplation.  …. It is the nature of man to go inside himself and examine himself and the world.  And fortunately for me, it is the nature of running to free me to do it.

            We have this tendency to sell ourselves short.  We do it daily.  We do not believe we can become athletes, so we become spectators.  We do not believe we can become heroes, so we become followers.  We do not believe we can become philosophers, so we never find our truth.

            … In using my body, I become disembodied.  I become pure intellect.  My life becomes thought.  Motion has made time stand still.  I am totally and completely in the present.  This is, if I believe Roman philosopher Plotinus (an expert on such matters), a mystical experience. 

p. 182   

            Mishima (Japanese writer and samurai who committed ritual suicide in 1970 ) was one of those people we regard with amazement. They do not have views, they are their views.  They do not have opinions, they live them.  They do not write about theories, they make realities.  They are heroes.