COVID, week 9 and Ahmaud Arbery
How many different ways can a weekly blogger write another week of Shelter-in-Place life, not much going on, kids are fine, husband’s fine, I’m running a lot, California is kinda opening, but it doesn’t apply to the Bay Area or to Santa Clara County, specifically…? Asking for a friend.
At one point in the not-too-distant past, on a video call with my sister and mom (and maybe with my brother and my sister-in-law… ? or maybe this was over two conversations?), the conversation stooped to the new low of me showing off the growth and progress of my two AeroGardens and of the lemon tree on the balcony. If you think watching paint dry is riveting, wait ‘til you see plants grow!!
Jest aside, yes, we’re all fine and well. Our luck isn’t lost on me. The aforedescribed in the first paragraph still applies, in that everyone is healthy and well, life is still under the strict SIP orders in SCC, and I’m running a lot (back-to-back 100k+ weeks) for no other reason than because I can, I enjoy it, and I’m grateful. Those are all reasons enough.
As has been the case for the better part of … a long time now, I am enormously grateful for the position my family and I are in, and if the best thing we can do is to stay home, physically distance ourselves from folks with whom we do not reside, check in on loved ones from afar, and wash our hands prolifically, then consider us champs. Good vibes are still flowing from me to anyone — my family and friends included — who are working on the front lines of all of this. I so wish my good vibes could inoculate you but dammit if I ain’t gonna try.
…and in a world that’s up to its ears in COVID everything, you’d think shit couldn’t get worse than it is, and then you’d realize at the end of last week that you — like most everyone else — completely missed the story about Ahmaud Arbery’s murder. The story — the fact that his murder happened in February, and it wasn’t until last week (May!) that his murderers were jailed — rocked the running world in no small part because he was shot and killed while he was out for his standard, daily, nothing-unique-about-it run.
That’s terrible in and of itself, but as it becomes abundantly clear as soon as you read about it, you learn that he wasn’t shot because he was running but because he was black and running. He was killed for running while black.
Let that sink in.
Did we mention that he was gunned down on video, too? Because, yeah, … that, too.
The story is heart-wrenching and disgusting and profoundly terrible, and it has sent shock waves through the greater global runner community, with many people (including me) dedicating part of their runs on Friday — what would have been Ahmaud’s 26th birthday — to his memory. That’s nice, and thoughtful, but obviously it is insufficient (and offensively so). There’s so much to unpack here, so much to disentangle, so much privilege and bias and everything uncomfortable to sort through.
I can’t tell you what to do, but if you do just one thing after reading my post this week, I implore you to go get lost in Google (and then in Amazon and in your local library’s website) and commit yourself to reading and learning and doing whatever you can — including all that uncomfortable stuff about checking your own privilege and bias — so that we can collectively work together to make this shit a thing of the past. It begins with us as individuals.
Know better; do better; raise better. We can do this.
On occupying time and settling mental unrest:
Reading: The kids and I finished Henry Huggins just the other night, and I’m this close to finishing Moment of Lift. I highly recommend MOL because while it talks about a lot of really terrible stuff, it also explores and explains a lot of impressive on-the-ground development work that the Gates Foundation is doing. It reminds me a lot of Nick Kristof and Cheryl WuDunn’s works (in fact, they are the ones who originally helped inform the Gates and get their work off the ground). The reading list continues to grow during SIP.
Watching: If you read Michelle Obama’s Becoming in the past couple years (so good!), and even if you haven’t, definitely check out her new documentary on Netflix of the same name. I read that her Netflix special was just released last week and was in super-secret production for a long time. It reinforces everything that she wrote about in her autobiography, and I’ll be the first to admit that I cried like a freakin’ baby while watching it (and completely unabashedly).
Running: Lots of miles still — all healthy — and still diligently following my “ancillary work” schedule for the first time in my life; it only took a pandemic for me to get my act together. My team is hosting a handful of challenges this month — like a virtual Mothers’ Day 5k/10k/10miler, a 10k time trial, and an elevation contest — which has been fun to participate in (though I’m not keen to do a TT right now).
QQ about running: for those of you who are also under a SIP order, where are you running? Do you ever drive to go run somewhere (at a trail, or park, or the ocean, for example), or are you simply beginning and ending all your runs from home? I feel like I’ve read and heard conflicting information about this. I’ve interpreted some stuff I’ve read as basically saying “don’t leave your county” which is completely different from saying “leave your car at home.” With the exception of the few times I’ve driven the kids to the perc ponds (approximately two miles away) to specifically run there, all of my runs have started and ended at home because that’s the impression that I’ve been under (despite the mixed messaging). From my very unscientific observation, it seems like probably a 50/50 mix of people who are only running out of their homes versus those who are actually driving somewhere to run. Thoughts?
Cooking: nothing out of the ordinary at this point.
Listening: Given *everything* going on in the world right now, the most recent Freakonomics episode about the negativity bias was pretty fascinating. The two recent episodes on the Growth Equation — about digital device hygiene and about leading yourself and others — were also pretty fascinating listens, given the current landscape.
Another week down. Take care of yourself and of each other. Hang in there. xo
