The Art of Running as a Practice Embedded in the Art of Living a Good Life

Should I find the creative motivation I am planning to write a series of posts concerning the above topic.  Running has become an integral part of my lifestyle the effects of which I feel have been quite positive. Also, I think it will do me good to put my interest in philosophy to use and to do so might even improve my writing skills simultaneously. They may be to wordy or esoteric for social media, but can easily be ignored 😉

My approach will be fueled by a few key ideas

1.   things that seem different have ways in which they are the same
2.    things that seem the same have ways in which they are different
3.   receptive exploration of these relations may yield a position that responds non-coercively
4.   what makes any practice an art involves a process of interweaving ends and means

These are not original ideas. The first three have most clearly imprinted been on my consciousness by Zhuangzi and Lao Tzu. For example:

When “this” and “that”—right and wrong—are no longer coupled as opposites—that is called the Course as Axis, the axis of all courses. When this axis finds its place in the center, it responds to all the endless things it confronts, thwarted by none. For it has an endless supply of “rights,” and an endless supply of “wrongs.” (1)

  And

The emptiness at the heart of real power
Renders it impossible or pointless to resist.
Reside in this central stillness (2)

The fourth idea can be traced to John Dewey:

The difference between external and intrinsic operations runs through all the affairs of life. One student studies to pass an examination, to get promotion. To another, the means, the activity of learning, is completely one with the results of it. ... Means and ends coalesce. If we run over in mind a number of such cases, we quickly see that all cases in which means and ends are external to one another are non-esthetic. This externality may even be regarded as a definition of the non-esthetic. (3)

The contemporary philosopher of aesthetics Crispin Sartwell from the standpoint of many traditions, cultures, and many great minds has wonderfully and systematically explored the questions related to the practice of living in connection with what philosophers call the true, the good, and the beautiful. Whatever I end up writing will be influenced by his work.

Sub-topics I may or may not explore could possibly include:

Repetition and Progress - Departure and Return - Purposeful Wandering?

Action and Rest – Aversion and Desire – Freedom and Constraint - Heart and Mind
Stress and Distress - Stability and Adaptation - Fulfillment and Self Emptying
Detachment and Engagement - Resilience and Fragility -   .....

Notes:

1.  Zhuangzi; Ziporyn, Brook. Zhuangzi: The Essential Writings, With Selections from Traditional Commentaries (Hackett Classics) (p. 12). Hackett Publishing. Kindle Edition.

2.  Tzu, Lao. Waterway: a new translation of the Tao Te Ching and introducing the Wu Wei Ching (Kindle Locations 366-368). crispy press. Kindle Edition.

3.  John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York: Putnam, 1934), 197-98