Who You Inspire

Don't worry, this isn't some brag post about how amazingly inspiring I am. In fact, it is actually about what a superficial freak I am, but more on that later...

I brought Kay to the river down the street a few days ago to let her chase the ducks (is that bad? I mean she lovingly chases them saying, Uppo Uppo quack quack" with her arms stretched out as if they would gladly run to her and let her pick them "uppo" and snuggle. Maybe that is considered animal abuse though. Hmmm, I may have to reconsider our hobbies). Anyway, my lazy self plopped under a tree to watch her shenanigans. As I was watching her I saw a woman on the other side of the river jogging. She was young and really didn't look out of shape, but I could tell she was really struggling. I was being rude and watching her as she exercised. She would run a little, then stop clearly exhausted. She would then start walking slowly until she built up the energy to jog a little again. She did this until she crossed the bridge and was on our side of the river. I creepily (in a non creepy way) watched her as she struggled to jog even a few feet at a time.

She slowly made her way to where Kay was playing. As she ran off I got to thinking about my own get-into-shape-adventure. I started jogging at the park a few houses down from my home because two laps of the park was equal to a mile. It was an easy way to gauge how far I had run. Unfortunately, as the weather is getting nicer the park is filling up with people. Okay, so this is fortunate since that is what the park is for, but it is unfortunate for me because I know I look like a 80 year old man when I run. I huff and puff and cough and the worse part is I am moving in sloooow motion. I always worry people must look at me and think, Geez why does that young woman look like she is going to die when she is barely moving her legs??

While I was creepily (in a non-creepy way) watching this woman struggle I thought to myself, good for her! She is clearly doing something that is difficult for her, but isn't giving up! I actually wanted to say I was proud of her, but realized that would be super weird and creepy so I refrained! The best part is she wasn't ashamed (or at least acted like she wasn't) despite her super slow pace. When I run in slow motion past people I usually pretend I am so into my music that I don't even notice them so I don't have to make eye contact with them because that would be humiliating (even the time the dog was chasing me and I thought I was going to pee my pants because I was terrified he was going to eat me alive).

So thanks to the random woman who was running along the river I am totally inspired to ignore the voices in my head saying I look like I am about to die every time I jog (even though I often feel that way) and instead I will tell myself I may be inspiring someone who is too nervous to try to get back in shape. At the very least I am making people thankful that they are not as out of shape as I am which, hey, whatever I can do to make my fellow man and woman feel better about themselves is fine with me.