Once upon a time, there was a man who did what he was told. He graduated from college, moved to the suburbs, earned a high-paying job, found a partner and then was married. For this man, life was stable, comfortable and predictable, Yet, despite his big house, fancy sports cars and exotic vacations, something in his life felt amiss.
On a recent golf outing with his law partner friends, he’d felt an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach, only two holes in. He acknowledged his emotional discomfort for a short moment, and then just chalked it up to stress. Then, a few days later, he felt it again while unwinding in front of the television set after a long day at work. He couldn’t quite put his finger on the feeling, but he sensed that it came from a strange small voice within.
The man quickly grabbed the remote control and turned the television off. He then closed his eyes for a minute and tried to decipher what that inner voice was telling him. He didn’t suffer from any known psychoses. Yet, at that moment, he distinctly heard what it was saying. In a rather jovial tone, it said:
“Run, Be Free! You are what you believe. Now go and manifest your reality!”
A smile broke out across the man’s face as he suddenly felt compelled to find his old pair of sneakers and go running in the streets like when he was a child. He found his old shoes in a closet, laced them up and waved goodbye to his wife. He then went running through the suburban streets, and he ran so far that soon he found himself in the countryside.
A year of long distances on foot
A hundred miles soon became 1,000. And 1,000 became 10,000 more. For an entire year, this man didn’t stop running. Each evening, he paused for six hours to sleep. But then in the morning, after eating breakfast, he was off once again.
By the time he ran through the extremely hot desert and up into the snow-capped mountains, this man had become a media sensation. Every news channel covered his fascinating journey. Some called him “Forrest Gump, Jr.” in honour of that beloved Hollywood character’s own famous run. Others called him “Running Jesus” for his long hair, his beard and his tendency to talk in parables.
Besides those rare moments when he imparted his poetic wisdom to media talking heads whose ears weren’t yet ready to hear the truth, he kept his silence. Soon, the burning question as to what possessed this man to run without ceasing captured the intrigue of the entire nation.
But why does he run?
Arrogant academic psychologists condescendingly weighed in, opining that he was just “metaphorically running away” from his “unresolved traumas” and that his journey was really an “episode of emotional avoidance.” The money-hungry marketing experts also chimed in by saying that his run was nothing more than a publicity stunt to build his “brand” and raise his “profile.”
Even vacuous social media celebrities couldn’t resist weighing in. One immensely popular influencer garnered a million “likes” with this inanely narcissistic comment: “#OMG! That running guy is soooo CUTE! He’s obviously running so he can pick me up!”
The mystery behind this man’s ceaseless running continued to linger in the minds of all those who followed his story, until one day, a young but humble female reporter (who ran next to him for 11 miles, or about 18 kilometres) came the closest to capturing his true intentions.
That reporter asked him the very question on everyone’s mind: “Why do you run without ceasing?”
Perhaps out of a genuine respect for her determination and grit in keeping pace with him, the running sage decided to reveal his deepest truth in a response that was broadcast to a national audience longing for intuitive wisdom:
“Why does a cat hunt? Why does a dog howl? Why does a snake shed its skin? And why does a man run without ceasing? Because that is their intended nature. Don’t you see? We’re all unique expressions of an infinitely divine lifeforce. We’re born into this world, we die and then we are reborn. It’s as simple as that. Why do I run without ceasing? To be one with THAT. Seek knowledge of THAT of which you are a part.”
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image: Pixabay
