It seems innocuous and it comes at short steep switchback along the Beast running trail in St. Francisville, an answer to the question all those who have run that particular trail have asked at one point. “THERE ARE NO EASY SECTIONS.” Hand painted on a chunk of wood. An overstatement of what should be obvious on that particular run. Are there any easy sections anywhere?

This morning I am rushed.  Heading out for a final run with the summer distance program I put on. It was at once rewarding and stressful like it normally wouldn’t be. Social distance and kids go together like diarrhea and milkshake (you thought I was gonna say shit and sandwich!) and even highly intelligent high school kids have a hard time executing it. I feel for the educators out there as the halls will echo with “get apart” and “give each other space.”  This isn’t because high school kids are being willfully defiant. It’s because we are human. 

There’s a well known swimming book called Total Immersion. It teaches a relaxed way of swimming with good form. During the beginning pages an example is made that if you put two people in the water 200 yards apart and start them swimming in the same direction, eventually they will be right next to each other. They will also, if blindfolded, naturally swim in a circle. The first is because I think there is something to human magnetism. We are drawn to each other. Period. The second, who knows, maybe because the earth is round. The point is the magnetism. 

While the reasons  we may be smarter and very slightly more evolved than apes are related to our frontal lobes and opposable thumbs, we are really just like less hairy apes and ants and dolphins and wombats. We crave the company of others. 

This is what running this summer has taught me. That if I tell a group of kids to run and stay spaced out, that they will over the next 18 ft end up shoulder to shoulder. Laughing. Smiling. Joking. Telling the same stories I told when I was there age.  They are drawn to each other. And frankly they need each other. 

This isn’t any commentary on what schools should or shouldn’t do. Or on evolution. Or trail running. Or the deep blue sea. 

It’s just a reminder that we are all drawn to each other and that we are all missing that. 

Like the Beast, life has no easy sections. But with a friend or friends. Those sections are more manageable. 

Be great today. 

#hugsandhi5s