At 4:17 pm today, I got an urge to listen to Vangelis while I worked.<\/p>\n
I clicked on to Chariots of Fire<\/a>.<\/p>\n Suddenly I was back running up<\/a> the Howell Mountain Road at Pacific Union College (PUC) in the Napa Valley.<\/p>\n It’s one of my rare runs when I feel joy.<\/p>\n I’m young and powerful.<\/p>\n I’m alone and I don’t mind.<\/p>\n I’m running uphill but it’s easy.<\/p>\n I’ve done five miles already and I’m just warming up.<\/p>\n I crest the hill and see people I know.<\/p>\n I wave and run past.<\/p>\n This is my religious community. This is how I was raised — Seventh-Day Adventist.<\/p>\n My dad is a big shot. I’m a preacher’s kid and I don’t mind.<\/p>\n I’m breaking away.<\/p>\n The air is pure and clean like my life and community.<\/p>\n The sun is coming up in front of me.<\/p>\n I pump my arms and increase my stride.<\/p>\n It took me a couple of years, but now I belong at PUC. I found my home.<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n I dream that one day I’m going set a world record for the marathon.<\/p>\n I’m young and free. I’m loved and I love. I feel the sun and the wind on my face.<\/p>\n Fast forward to January 1986<\/a>. I’m lying on the couch of my friends the Muths at PUC.<\/p>\n 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!).<\/p>\n I listen to the soundtrack from Chariots of Fire.<\/p>\n Why did I have to be exiled from this paradise<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n From my chat room<\/a>:<\/p>\n Emma: When I listen to that song I think of Luke running to me in a field of roses <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 … Continue reading
\nCrikey: obrother
\nYourMoralLeader: I love that!
\nQuixoticLass: a field of roses, could get p**ckly
\nYourMoralLeader: Did you see movie BIG FISH?
\nEmma: lol yeah
\nEmma: I’m in a funny mood tonight
\nQuixoticLass: funny haha or funny strange?
\nEmma: Funny hahastrange
\nQuixoticLass: I’m thinkin funny strange if you are talking about YML running to you through a field of roses
\nQuixoticLass: he wouldn’t have to run, he walks fast enough
\nEmma: I’m imaginative
\nQuixoticLass: like goliath with his stride
\nEmma: Theres this new rose everyone is buying
\nEmma: Multi coloured
\nYourMoralLeader: Remember in Big Fish, he stands in a field of daffodils before his love?
\nEmma: I came across it last mothers day
\nEmma: Yes Luke lol
\nYourMoralLeader: I love that moment and tha tmovie
\nEmma: It’s a nice moment
\njonnie: Moral change eh ?
\njonnie: I’ll sit and observe
\nQuixoticLass: moral change requires action
\njonnie: fresh socks
\nQuixoticLass: he’s a scruffy mr. rogers
\njonnie: smiley face though eh!
\njonnie: Beard could do with a trim
\nQuixoticLass: you’re a goof
\njonnie: nice teeth \ud83d\ude42
\njonnie: I want Luke to wrap Tefillin!
\nQuixoticLass: you gotta come by in the morning then
\njonnie: Ahh Oka
\njonnie: ok
\njonnie: I’ll do that and have a peek at Lukeford.net \ud83d\ude42
\nQuixoticLass: 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
\njonnie: Is it like clingfilm? – the clear plastic stuff we put food in in the UK?
\nQuixoticLass: is tefillin like clingfilm?
\njonnie: Cant wait to see"
\nQuixoticLass: it’s leather straps attached to leather boxes that hold parchments which have hebrew writing on them
\njonnie: Oh !
\njonnie: Oh dear – wrong site clearly!
\nQuixoticLass: for religious, not sexual purposes
\njonnie: I needed some moral guidance!
\njonnie: Think I’m past saving though s.
\njonnie: Oh no
\njonnie: What’s he up to!
\nEmma: lol grin and bare it Luke
\nQuixoticLass: he’s got bum elbows
\nQuixoticLass: he stole them from a bum
\nEmma: lol what
\njonnie: I won’t ask!
\nQuixoticLass: bum = homeless person
\nQuixoticLass: not ass
\nQuixoticLass: as far as I know he hasn’t been elbow deep in a bum
\njonnie: The profile pic was gorgeous on camstreams – I wonder what happened!
\nQuixoticLass: but then he really doesn’t share that kind of info with me<\/p>\n