Day 63

Cruelty lies within all of us - a dark side balances the light.  Perhaps we are all born with equal shadow and light, and then as our lives progress, either the brilliance can counteract the gloomy darkness, so that gradually you become more illuminated than sunk in murky shade, or it can go the opposite way, so that you are drawn more to stygian blackness than radiance.

I remember ganging up with my friend and being very cruel to a girl called Glynis.  We made her drink our own nasty concoction of sand and leaves and water, poor thing.  But shortly thereafter I experienced cruelty and bullying directed towards me, and I remember suddenly empathising with Glynis, realising how she must have felt.  I was cruel again, of course, and probably still am sometimes, but I remember sticking up for the underdog more and more after that experience.  

I have recently heard of various terrible things in the news, the worst being the suicide bomber in Iraq, who, after two bomb blasts, travelled in an ambulance with the wounded, dressed as a policeman, and then detonated his vest once he was in the hospital, killing the injured and doctors and nurses!  What possesses a person to do such a thing?  It is incomprehensible how a human being, capable of reason, could bring himself to commit such a horrifying and cruel act.

Molly and I ran 3.2km today in the pelting snow, I think 3km may be my optimum distance, my sweet spot, which is quite pathetic, but the one and only time that I ran more than 4km, I felt exhausted and my legs hurt.  I probably just have to push myself more, because surely you should improve your distance with time.  

Self-portrait with light winning over darkness.