Abstinence is preparation. – Barker Ajax
The old man had relied on running for stability. Thought about that today. Had a rule for fifty years.
No drugs or alcohol before his workout.
Admitted to playing basketball while drunk. Had trouble deciding which of the three hoops he saw was real.
Couldn’t play much ball today sober.
Running had kept him sane. Exercise was medicine.
He still took his medicine. Just took longer. And lately there was an ancillary placebo effect.
The old man, formerly among the most anguished of runners, had looked like a tortured mollusk.
Then he became – let me break it down for you – one of the world’s great senior pedestrians. Grimace gone and frankly not all that much slower.
Hadn’t realized the psychic crutch that was running. Makes complete sense. But if you do something to do something, you don’t always know what you are doing. And why. Even if it works. Especially if it works.
The old man wasn’t crazy, he was a runner. But now he didn’t run.
So.
So, what next, he had no idea.
Certainly some suitable form of self-medication seemed mandated.
But he would have to move his walk to much later in the day.
Much later.
Much, much later.