Dear reader, please forgive my purloin of the Tom Petty song title while making my point that most anyone can learn to fly. Really. Because to me, RUNNING is synonymous with FLYING. I shall explain:
WALKING,
according to Oxford Languages, means “to move at a regular pace by lifting and
setting down each foot in turn, never having both feet off the ground at once.”
RUNNING,
according to Wikipedia, "is a gait with an aerial phase in which all feet are
above the ground."
FLYING,
according to Reddit, "is moving or capable of moving in the air."
So there you have it. Both Running and Flying mean being airborne.
My learning
to fly began in 1977, the very day I finished reading THE COMPLETE BOOK OF
RUNNING, by JAMES FIXX, published that same year by Random House. I was living
in Kamloops, British Columbia, where I became a runner of the outdoor circuit
at the very beautiful McArthur Island Park situated right in the middle of the
city. Moving to Regina, Saskatchewan, where I am still a runner, but now at
Wascana Park, also situated in the middle of the city.
Running has
been good for me. To quote James Fixx, for me and my running, the fates
have been exceedingly kind. In 1977 when I first started running, I was 26
years of age and running a minimum of five miles every day. Now I am 74 years
old and running just three miles, three times a week.
And I wrote
my thesis, ONE HUNDRED DAYS AT THE HOUSE OF CONCORD: An Ethnographic Study of
Young Offenders in an Exercise Programme. For 100 days, in 1994, at 43 years of
age, I gathered a group of male young offenders, between the ages of 15 and 20,
and we ran a minimum of five miles each day from Monday to Friday on a course
in Wascana Centre, Regina, SK. Yes. Learning to fly, literally, has been good
for me.
But I have
also learned to fly, figuratively, when it comes to BUSKING. When I started
busking, I started clunky with a plethora of accessories. I had my guitar, I
had the garb (bedizened in cowboy attire), and I also had my music stand and my
cheat sheets! Having to travel about by foot with the added music stand makes
busking bush-league and almost immotile, whereas now busking with just my
guitar and harp is rather lightweight and very portable.
Over the
years I have developed the confidence to thrum without the cheat sheets and
even move on to other musical instruments. Guitar is still my favorite, but I
have busked many times with my banjo and my didgeridoo. And then even moving on
from other instruments I have developed my busking skills as a pencil portrait
street artist, and now as a Sharpie marker caricaturist. Practicing with my
pencil, after drawing hundreds of portraits, my fastest times would range from
20 – 25 minutes. Practicing now with my Sharpie, sacrificing quality for speed,
it takes me just five to seven minutes! Not-so-strangely, I’ve changed only my
busking instruments, certainly not my milieu.
Regarding
busking, I learned to walk with my guitar; I learned to run with my pencil; I have now learned
to fly with my Sharpie! By flying I mean traveling light, conveying just a canvas knapsack
filled with a “MIX
MEDIA 11 X 14 inch” CANSON sketchpad at a cost of $25.95 and several Sharpie fine print permanent
black and gray markers at a cost of $2.00 apiece.
Marching without wings in my
CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week are these two lovely ANGELS, from
Toronto, Canada:
