At 4:17 pm today, I got an urge to listen to Vangelis while I worked.
I clicked on to Chariots of Fire.
Suddenly I was back running up the Howell Mountain Road at Pacific Union College (PUC) in the Napa Valley.
It’s one of my rare runs when I feel joy.
I’m young and powerful.
I’m alone and I don’t mind.
I’m running uphill but it’s easy.
I’ve done five miles already and I’m just warming up.
I crest the hill and see people I know.
I wave and run past.
This is my religious community. This is how I was raised — Seventh-Day Adventist.
My dad is a big shot. I’m a preacher’s kid and I don’t mind.
I’m breaking away.
The air is pure and clean like my life and community.
The sun is coming up in front of me.
I pump my arms and increase my stride.
It took me a couple of years, but now I belong at PUC. I found my home.
It’s 1978, four years before Chariots of Fire comes out. By that time, my knees will be shot and I’ll never run again (beyond three miles).
I dream that one day I’m going set a world record for the marathon.
I’m young and free. I’m loved and I love. I feel the sun and the wind on my face.
Fast forward to January 1986. I’m lying on the couch of my friends the Muths at PUC.
I have a nasty cold but an important date that night with Lori Winn (she went on to become a psychologist and marry a Jew!).
I listen to the soundtrack from Chariots of Fire.
Why did I have to be exiled from this paradise along with my father? Sure, I’ve gone out into the world and conquered. I’ve become the sportswriter I’ve always wanted to be. I cover the San Francisco 49ers for KAHI/KHYL raido. I’ve gone into the lockerroom and interviewed my childhood heroes Tom Landry, Danny White, Tony Dorsett, Randy White. I’ve been drunk and I’ve kissed a lot of girls.
But I’m sad that in a couple of days, I’ll have to leave PUC and go back to my cold home in Auburn, CA.
I don’t realize that I am in the opening stages of mono, and while it goes away after a few months, something very like it returns two years later with a vengeance. This time it never leaves. And I never run again.
From my chat room:
Emma: When I listen to that song I think of Luke running to me in a field of roses
Crikey: obrother
YourMoralLeader: I love that!
QuixoticLass: a field of roses, could get p**ckly
YourMoralLeader: Did you see movie BIG FISH?
Emma: lol yeah
Emma: I’m in a funny mood tonight
QuixoticLass: funny haha or funny strange?
Emma: Funny hahastrange
QuixoticLass: I’m thinkin funny strange if you are talking about YML running to you through a field of roses
QuixoticLass: he wouldn’t have to run, he walks fast enough
Emma: I’m imaginative
QuixoticLass: like goliath with his stride
Emma: Theres this new rose everyone is buying
Emma: Multi coloured
YourMoralLeader: Remember in Big Fish, he stands in a field of daffodils before his love?
Emma: I came across it last mothers day
Emma: Yes Luke lol
YourMoralLeader: I love that moment and tha tmovie
Emma: It’s a nice moment
jonnie: Moral change eh ?
jonnie: I’ll sit and observe
QuixoticLass: moral change requires action
jonnie: fresh socks
QuixoticLass: he’s a scruffy mr. rogers
jonnie: smiley face though eh!
jonnie: Beard could do with a trim
QuixoticLass: you’re a goof
jonnie: nice teeth 🙂
jonnie: I want Luke to wrap Tefillin!
QuixoticLass: you gotta come by in the morning then
jonnie: Ahh Oka
jonnie: ok
jonnie: I’ll do that and have a peek at Lukeford.net 🙂
QuixoticLass: my back will be so itchy from my sunburn by the time my date starts it’s going to look like I’ve got fleas
jonnie: Is it like clingfilm? – the clear plastic stuff we put food in in the UK?
QuixoticLass: is tefillin like clingfilm?
jonnie: Cant wait to see"
QuixoticLass: it’s leather straps attached to leather boxes that hold parchments which have hebrew writing on them
jonnie: Oh !
jonnie: Oh dear – wrong site clearly!
QuixoticLass: for religious, not sexual purposes
jonnie: I needed some moral guidance!
jonnie: Think I’m past saving though s.
jonnie: Oh no
jonnie: What’s he up to!
Emma: lol grin and bare it Luke
QuixoticLass: he’s got bum elbows
QuixoticLass: he stole them from a bum
Emma: lol what
jonnie: I won’t ask!
QuixoticLass: bum = homeless person
QuixoticLass: not ass
QuixoticLass: as far as I know he hasn’t been elbow deep in a bum
jonnie: The profile pic was gorgeous on camstreams – I wonder what happened!
QuixoticLass: but then he really doesn’t share that kind of info with me
