When I started my run this morning, I felt as I had during all of my runs from the past 3 weeks. Thanks to moving from sea level to about 6000 feet in Colorado, my lungs work what feels like triple time. I am sluggish and slow. My rating of perceived exertion (RPE) is much higher than normal, for both the pace and the heart rate.
This morning, a bit frustrated with the slowness, I decided to throw in a few 1 minute pickups to at least get some turnover happening in my legs. The first one felt truly like death. My breathing sounded like a train, struggling against the heft of its load. My heart was pounding in my ears. I had visions of the crows eating my rotting carcass in the dusty plains.
But, the second one didn’t feel as bad. I did one set of 5 x 1; then ran easy for 5 minutes – again, fear of the crows eating my carcass seemed legit.
After the easy 5 minutes, I was feeling quite like the big girl, so what the hell? Let’s go for another set of 5 x 1 minute. By now, I was actually feeling what I might call zippy. As I was about to start the 4th set of this round, I saw a dirt path that led off the paved trail.
You all know the path I took.
The second my foot hit the dirt, I felt free. My legs were flying, my lungs were pumping (in the right way). Oh frabjous joy! Callooh Callay!
Happy Independence Day! I thought. And, then, as I meandered through this fun little dirt loop in the town of Parker, Colorado, I got myself to a deep sort of thinking on freedom.
Over the centuries, our military and their families have made many significant sacrifices to protect freedom. I am forever grateful to my family members, my friends, and strangers who heeded this call of service to protect freedom and those in need, to support cornerstone values that make me grateful I was born to be an American.
We are taught that freedom comes with responsibility – and this is so true! Our military bear this responsibility physically, mentally, and emotionally. Their commitment, discipline, and sacrifice is unimaginable to me.
However, the military don’t bear this responsibility alone. It is up to civilians to make certain that their sacrifices aren’t wasted. Our freedom is not only supported by military might, it is furthered, deepened, and given meaning by the things we do in the everyday. The freedom that the military protect is made worthwhile by how we act every day.
Now, before anyone thinks that I am equating the sacrifices of the military with the actions of citizens in everyday life, let me be clear: I am not making that equation. What I am saying is that we serve different functions, and both are necessary to experience freedom fully.
A key ingredient to a free society is a strong, vibrant, supportive civil society. Civil society includes all of the non-economic, non-governmental ways in which we associate with each other. Sports. Church. Volunteer associations. You know, all of the stuff that makes community great.
Don’t believe me that civil society is the key to all of this? Going back to the 1800s, observers noticed that there was something special about American Civil Society that was unlike European society. Alexis de Toqueville (visiting from France) wrote that the American civil society was a key to our success and growth as a nation. (Quite presciently for someone writing in the 1830s, de Toqueville also noted the dangers of too much individualism, such that we may risk becoming too fragmented from each other.)
More recently, Robert Putnam wrote two books on this subject. In Making Democracy Work, he outlines the differences in civil society in Northern and Southern Italy. He shows direct links between the vibrancy of a society’s civil society and its economic and governmental health. He demonstrates how a diminished civil society links to limited economic prospects, and rampant government corruption.
In Bowling Alone, he writes about the decline of the U.S. civil society. He details how (and why) this loss happened, and why it matters for the nation’s progress. The research in both of these books is meticulous and compelling in the case presented for the vital importance of civil society to a free society.
In particular, the loss of civil society means we produce less social capital. Like economic capital, social capital is a resource, and it includes the feelings of goodwill and trust we have for each other. Unlike economic capital, however, when we spend social capital, we actually make more of it. Give trust and goodwill and you create more trust and goodwill. Foster hatred and mistrust instead? Well, sadly, we are seeing how that is working out.
Being a part of a broad and diverse civil society brings us into association with people that aren’t like us. When we have these experiences, we realize life doesn’t have to be just one way, there are multiple ways to be. And, these differences are okay. In fact, they are more than just okay. Difference is what gives vitality to the functioning of a free society.
Without the ability to let our freak flag fly, how could we say we are truly free?
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of volunteering for trail service in Minturn, Colorado. A group of 40 or so volunteers spent the day building a new trail that the entire community will enjoy. This work is classic civil society stuff. It makes me all weepy and shit.
Now, over the course of this day, it became clear that I was working with people who didn’t necessarily think or live like me. Yet there we were, working side by side, doing good in the hood to support a community resource that would become the foundation for the growth of more civil society and social capital in the future. *All the Feels ❤️🤗*
During races, I come in step with people who don’t think and live like me. I coach people who don’t think and live like me. I have worked with plenty of people who are nothing like me. Through the perspectives of others, I learn new ways of seeing the world, and my life becomes richer and more meaningful.
Society becomes stronger when we each respect, embrace and actively include diversity – rather than villainize it. A strong civil society, such as we find at endurance sport events, provides the means to understand difference as normal, happy, expected, celebrated.
While we may be (are?) experiencing a decline in civil society, I believe that we have it in us to reverse this course, to turn away from the hatefulness, and to put a little more love back in our hearts.
Civil society is far from dead in the United States. So, I don’t want to overstate this decline.
As I ran today, I spent and earned plenty of social capital. I shared many smiles, waves, and tidings of “good morning” with others. I realized the precious resource of civil society and social capital are our responsibility to protect, in order to maintain our freedom.
Let’s be kind to each other – because of our differences. Let’s create equality and opportunity for everyone. Let’s support the dreams and hopes of each other. Let’s make FREEDOM RING!
Happy 4th of July!
Thank you for sharing this thoughtful journal entry with us.