LEARNING TO FLY -- BUT I AIN'T GOT WINGS!

 

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: