The Johnson-Nixon Generation

I am blue.  I happened upon a grim statistic yesterday: $86,000,000,000.  What is it? It is the amount of profit posted by Wall Street firms in the first two years of the Obama administration.  Doesn't particularly stand out -- I mean, these dudes do nothing but focus on money making money.  It stands out to me when I see it paired to another statistic:  $77,000,000,000.  This is the amount of profit posted by Wall Street firms in the entire eight years of the G.W. Bush administration.

So they are on track to make $344 Billion in profit over the course of the Obama term (assuming he is reelected) which is 4.4 X of the profit in the GWB term.

I am not against money. In fact, I have some myself. But the above stats are startling. It is why this Occupy Wall Street thing coalesced out of the ether.  But, the movement is fatally flawed because the only people who can really appreciate such stats are not going camping in a city park. They have jobs, families and obligations that prevent neo-hippie/world bank protester behavior.

Let me be clear about something: I like money.  I would like to have more.  I don't begrudge the enterprise class for earning a lot of it. But it is really beginning to feel like hoarding now.  We the taxpayers bailed out these companies; the least they can do is set up micro-lending banks, take haircuts on home mortgages, or finance a factory or two.  But instead, they hoard.  It has come to pass in this country that amassing money for the sake of money is a proper ambition.

It wasn't always like this. In fact, our founders instituted the estate tax because they believed that enterprise was a better societal goal than winning the sperm lottery.  But now the estate tax is deemed a horrific government grab against private interests.  How did it get this way?

According to my armchair analysis of the universe, it started where almost all bad things have started in this country: Nixon.  He began the modern process of turning the once respectable Republican Party into some type of primitive  cerebellum of fear, greed, anger and gluttony.

In future posts, I will explore the time-space pressure wave of destruction wrought by the emergence of Nixon.  But for now, I will simply acknowledge the blues that is the signature of our generation.  Other than the dot com bubble we have witnessed more than our share of economic and social complexity.  The Moody's downgrade of American credit-worthiness (which was a stupid decision, by the way, but more on that later) is more metaphorical than it is real; I mean where else will you invest your bond fund? Italy?  In my lifetime we have been terrorized by the Cold War, seen the unmitigated destruction of green space, got to buy our homes during the housing bubble, been terrorized by global warming, Bin Laden, the white collar recession of the early 90s when we were just beginning our careers and now the biggest recession since the depression right when we are supposed to be amassing assets having hit cruising altitude in our careers.  I've got my 22 year-old living in my house, and my parents coping with their retirement cut in about half.

Things need to change. What and how? That can only be assessed after a proper reckoning with the past.

Barefoot Running, Barefoot Running, Barefoot Running

What the fuck?

Just read yet another article about the boogie-man dangers of barefoot/minimalist running.  It was a link from the website of one of the sponsors of my favorite race series on Earth -- the EX2 Adventures Back Yard Burn.

I feel the need to speak because I am sick of the piles of idiocy building up around me regarding this subject. For the record, I run barefoot occasionally and only for short distances.  Everything else, I use Vibram FF.

Here's the deal: Don't run this way if your goal is to exclude injury from your life. Don't run this way if you expect to simply trade equipment, and continue training at the same frequency and pace.  Don't run this way if you are near-sighted and can't see rocks.  Don't run this way if you think it will solve all your problems. Don't run this way because you are some type of luddite who hates modernity and seeks to get closer to the Creator by eschewing technology.

I know that the people adhering to the last category will run barefoot anyway, but I wanted to give them a shout-out because I think they are crazy zealots who miss the point entirely.

This is the point: DO run this way because it is joyful.  Your feet are weightless. The ground feels awesome. Even rocks have their place. It is like getting a foot massage every time you go out.  Nothing feels better than the transition from a hard or rocky surface to the soft bed of pine needles in the fall.  Your toes dig into mud.  Water does not weigh down your feet.  You are silent.  It is sensual.  It is virtually impossible to twist an ankle because there is no leverage for the torque, and you react so quickly on a misstep.

And here is the bitter truth that is behind virtually all injuries attributed to this "fad.":  DON'T train too hard.  If you want to pick up right where you are today, then just stop. You are a fool.  People whom I have encouraged to pick up this hobby have complained about being so sore and limping for up to two weeks when they start.  They might start by doing a mile. That's it. And it hurts. Your feet and legs and everything are NOT CONDITIONED.  Forget distance. Focus on time. When I started I ran for a total of 5 minutes, ONCE A WEEK.  Why? It fucking hurt if I tried more.  That lasted about 6 weeks. Then I went to twice a week.  Then, 10 minutes and 15 and so on. It took a full year and a half to get to the point I could go running whenever I want.  The best conditioning I ever did, and need to continue doing is jumping rope barefoot.

There is literally nothing better on Earth to condition your feet and calves for barefoot running that jumping rope sans shoes.

It bears repeating:   There is literally nothing better on Earth to condition your feet and calves for barefoot running that jumping rope sans shoes.

So for all you shoe-guys out there -- Shut the fuck up.  You don't know what you are talking about.  You can't until you've tried it.  And you can't say you've tried it unless you did it right, and that means taking it slow, absolutely.  The dude who wrote this article in the Boston Globe complained of metatarsal stress fracture when he was already running up to twelve miles after only two months.  He is an idiot, no equivocation there.  Plain, unvarnished dummy.

And for all the luddites: You can shut up too.  Because the whole argument that "if the caveman did it, then it must be right" is totally fucking stupid.  Should we all give up clothes because cavemen were naked?  Should I abandon my dentist?  Try this on for size -- Vibram FF are totally fucking high-tech shoes!  Get back to nature my ass. The whole "but we were born that way" argument is specious. Anatomically and genetically I have the same potential physicality as a Cirque de Soleil contortionist.  But that doesn't mean I can do it. It just means we are both human.

Bottom line: If you are afraid to run without shoes, then don't take them off.  I don't look down on you. But don't look down on me either. We'll both end up in the injury ward at some point, but I am betting that I will have had more fun and sensuous runs that you did.  And you are betting that you could zone out and not pay attention to your footfalls.  You believe shoes care for your feet with avuncular generosity.  I happen to disagree, but whatever -- it's a matter of personal taste, not of right or wrongness.