I’ve run a few marathons. In New York they publish the finishing times in the paper the next day. For some reason I would look at the later finishers to see the oldest ones. I don’t know why. I guess I found it inspirational. In the ones I’ve run a 91 year old man and an 88 year old woman finished. I used to tease my mom: “You could train[…] Keep reading →

On a scorching August day, running along the Hudson I passed a sign: “Runners: Free T-shirt for Interview.” I stopped and agreed to be interviewed. A sports apparel company was interviewing runners for a commercial. They had constructed a small plywood hut with the cameras inside that was air-conditioned. They had me wear a shirt over the one I had been running in to cover their competitor’s logo. The interviewer[…] Keep reading →

By the second day of silence at last week’s five-day meditation retreat, the mental static of everyday thoughts had mostly passed. During the 9am-11am session we switched techniques from focusing on breathing to scanning the body for sensations and letting them pass. After one or two scans I found I could hardly sense anything subtler than, say, my shirt on my arm. Frustrating. Another scan brought me back to my[…] Keep reading →

The Beginning It began last year with a scene in Motorcycle Diaries where the lead character did something that led me to wonder if I could do the same. I mentioned my thoughts to a few friends. Only one, Dave, said let’s do it. (What “it” is, I’ll get to below). We scheduled it for June 15. A trip to Rome delayed that. Rescheduling was a challenge. Thursday it seemed[…] Keep reading →