Tuesday, November 1, 2011

The Toll Booth

He sits in the toll booth supervising the exchange. You pay or you stay. For a relatively small amount you can buy passage and continue your journey. It gets interesting if you decide not to pay and take alternate routes. The latter choice more often than not will create adventure into the unknown.


A place not many of us have the stomach for. Se we pay the toll and go about our way down Easy Street. Needing a map, a compass, a flashlight, a down jacket, matches and a Swiss Army Knife isn't our routine idea of preparedness.


Sometimes we don't even know where we are going. But go we must as the soul's imperative is for life, and as much as we can get of it.


Risk? Absolutely. Danger? Imminent. Security? None. Challenge? Yup. Boredom? Zero. Value? Priceless. Rewards? Immense. Satisfaction? Guaranteed.


It is November First. We sit warm and comfortable in our cars at the crossroads. He sits patiently awaiting our decision. It is not too late to turn the car around. Take another route. Chose something different, go somewhere no one else seems to want to go. Try it a different way. Break the cycle. Feed the soul. Cease the mundane pattern of habitually. Drop the illusions of security and entitlement like a bad habit. Love more, fear less. Expand, grow, develop, experience or pay the toll for more constriction, stagnancy, decay and numbness.


The time to make that choice is at hand. We have five months to affect our race preparedness for next season. The time to build strength, speed, power and endurance is NOW. That means we need to make some hard choices. We can take the easy way out, pay the toll, and hope that somehow the road and the destination get us to our goal. Newsflash: It won't.


Conversely we can get our lazy butts out of the car, grab our survival gear and head up and over the mountains. There the only toll is your effort, labor, growth and eventual success. If you make that choice you cannot lose. The experience alone is alchemy. That is the path with heart. The road you pay to drive on is a mirage, the path you choose to run upon is paved with gold.


Supervise the exchange with awareness.


Fessing up, this trite, titular tale came after my decision last night to buy three Apple Cup tickets for $80/ea instead of paying my (now delinquent) second half property tax.


I may need a new map or an audience with Don Corleone.


My favorite toll booth scene. From The Godfather. I always think (I own the re-mastered Director's Cut anthology and have watched (studied) many times, "Sonny, don't go." See what happens?



7 comments:

ej said...

i imagine you've seen this:

http://www.brobible.com/bronews/story/personal-trainer-spends-6-months

i wonder if this guy has heard about a set point.

ej said...

ps - there is nothing like riding a bike for 5 days around the peninsula while gorging yourself on snacks and salty globs and mounds of mexican food in order to lose weight effectively.

KML5 said...

I will say that Drew has some huevos. The LAST thing I want to do it exactly what he IS doing. Proving a point. By example. Intentionally going plumpy to demonstrate the road back, if that is indeed what he is doing, is admirable. Way more than I am capable of. The few meager gains I have attained on the path to fitness I NEVER want to lose. Then again, I really like Tex-Mex and Tecate (as you know).

ej said...

on nov 5 you can visit Drew's website and join him on his road back. you should try it to obtain real empathy for your students. i am also gaining now :) so i join in with drew. i may soon be a regular spinner again, hopefully.

KML5 said...

I would like to think I enjoy total empathy with my students at all times and under all circumstances.

ej said...

you need to get fat

KML5 said...

I used to weight 175, does that count?