[at-l] Marcel Proust and why we do what we do........

["Thomas McGinnis" <tmcginnis@ucclan.state.in.us>]

This post was originally written on May 11, 1999 and posted to both the Dead Runners' Society ("Carpe Viam!" Seize the Road!) and the at-l. I thought it made it to both lists — and I got very nice replys from the DRS and I THOUGHT from at-l,...., but it was not in the at-l archives.
In any event, I have hunted it up in the DRS archives, reentered it verbatim below, and serve it up now to the at-l as freshmade goods. Personally, I think it's one of my best, and I challenge myself often to live by it. It's a doozy, to actually attempt to live by. Have an outstanding day. Toe.
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Picked up a copy of the January 12 edition of The New York Times front section the other day, and (Hey, when you don't subscribe to a newspaper, you tend to savor what you can grub up. So anyway,) I was struck by a quote from Marcel Proust in a piece at the bottom of the page. The piece was by a gent named Alain de Botton, writer of a book titled "How Proust Can Change Your Life." The quote struck me because it so well expressed one slant on my adoption of Helen Keller's "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all." Hikers are so much like this, and as for runners...well, any associating body with a motto of "Carpe Viam!" such as the Dead Runners Society...well, you've just gotta be on the right track.

So let me set up the quote. In the early '20s, the Paris, France newspaper "L'Intransigeant" would pose interesting questions to a mix of people — politicians, actors, beggars, businesspeople, the housebound, etc — and see how the mix would react. Like the recent asteroid movies, one question (paraphrased) was "The End of the World is irrefutably predicted to occur in a matter of hours. What would be the effect of this prediction on people between the time of the announcement and the moment of apocalypse? And what would you do in these last hours?" (We're not hiking or running related yet, are we?)

One of the persons tagged for an answer was novelist Marcel Proust, who's "In Search of Lost Time" had been translated into English as "Remembrance of Things Past." Proust answered as follows:

	I think that life would suddenly seem wonderful to us if
	we were threatened to die as you say. Just think of how
	many projects, travels, love affairs, studies, it — our
	life — hides from us, made invisible by our laziness
	which, certain of a future, delays them incessantly.

	But let all this threaten to become impossible forever,
	how beautiful it would become again! Ah! If only the
	cataclysm doesn't happen this time, we won't miss 
	visiting the new gallaries of the Louvre, throwing
	ourselves at the feet of Miss X, making a trip to India.

	The cataclysm doesn't happen, we don't do any of it, 
	because we find ourselves back in the heart of normal
	life, where negligence deadens desire. And yet we 
	shouldn't have needed the cataclysm to love life today.
	It would have been enough to think that we are humans, 
	and that death may come this evening.

Anybody need a diagram to make this post "list-related"? I hope not. For me, I went out today and got "Remembrance..." from the library, and I'd sure like to scope de Botton's book, too.

And you? Hey, "Carpe Viam!" Maybe it's time to do that 04:00:00 marathon without walking breaks; maybe the next time you're out hiking, you'll nail that twenty mile day to a tree; maybe you'll introduce yourself to Miss X, or hike or run the entire Appalachian Trail, or build the perfect quilt, or finally read Proust. The AT trail phrase in 1979 was GO FOR IT!

Have just an excellent day, OK?


dat ol', very philosophical,
Sloetoe'79
from Indianapolis, Indiana
who's really looking forward to 
Damascus' Trail Days, 'cause he's
gonna try a 20 miler (run) on the AT.
(Don't worry, Dee, this'll hurt me a lot
more'n it'll hurt you, I promise. Hee Hee Hee!
And did you notice? This postie is now purely and 
totally running AND trail related. I knock myself out.)



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