8. Make it Social

My eighth lesson comes as I realize that most of my non-family (and much of my family) social intercourse comes from running or related activity.

A brief history: I count 4 periods of serious efforts to do athletic things in my life. First, I was 6 when Dad took first me, and later me, my brother S__ and my sister S__ running at lunch over the summer. That morphed into family race day, 4 or so times a year. In a family descended from reticent northern Europeans, this was our strategy for interaction. Second, I was in college, joined the rowing team, and found 90% of my society surrounding rowing, mostly because I didn't know how else one is supposed to meet people. When I think of college, I think of early mornings and winter training trips to Tampa. The third was after law school, when I shared a group house with J__. We ran together, then climbed together, then I paddled whitewater with others, but everything we did other than work surrounded some athletic event. I even met my wife, P__, both at work and at the climbing gym. The fourth is the most recent, since 2006, when I imitated my siblings' examples -- brother took up long distance cycling, and sister took up ironman triathlon -- and fell in with a running and triathlon crowd. J__ is part of this, too, now married and with kids. My running group came to include current and former co-workers and co-bloggers. But I've been able to ride this last wave for 6 years because I'm not sure what I'd do otherwise. I no longer know any good bar-flies or theatre-goers. This is my crowd.