It seems almost sacrilegious to write about marketing and any kind of eating or workout, while my mind and soul are preoccupied with the horror in Haiti, where an individual could previously have lived for more than 100 days on what I spend in one week on groceries. The medical situation in Port au Prince, including burying the dead, must occur first, but my attention was focused during today’s run on reconstruction. How could that happen, and what can we as a country do to help?
What if we formed, at the national level, a Construction Corps, to include architects, engineers, builders, electricians, plumbers, and construction workers, which would have the initial mission of helping the Haitian people to rebuild? It looks like most of the capital will need to be razed; could the rubble be reprocessed to create new building materials? MIT, where are you?
Such a Corps, with intensive work for six months, could certainly make inroads on helping the Haitian people regain spiritual vision and material progress into whatever the future holds. And Corpsmen, who would be encouraged to donate their time if that could be done without hurting their families, would certainly be in line for top jobs back home once Port au Prince rebuilding was underway. The Haitian people who helped and eventually took over the reconstruction would become more stable and likewise in line for better positions in their economy. What we do for others helps ourselves in the long run.
It is tempting to glaze over the whole issue of birth control while thinking about this, but I do feel strongly that any organization that ignores the problem of overpopulation in this day and age needs to rethink the reasons for its own existence. Jesus Christ said absolutely nothing about birth control, and Biblical injunctions to be fruitful and multiply were issued in an age where there was about one human being for every 25 square miles of tillable land. What has occurred largely as the result of one church mindlessly trying to expand itself has been horrendous even without a major earthquake.
Back to the less emotional issues!
This second week’s shopping started more modestly than the first week, with $55.76 being the total tab for a market basket that also included non-grocery items such as Windex. Good avocados at $1 each, lots of grapefruit at $1/pound. Last night, I transgressed at the cribbage group, where one member brought cookies centered with fresh lemon curd she’d made from lemons grown in our neighborhood. AND I had coffee; I don’t feel bad about it but won’t continue the practice. At another group I belong to here, for instance, last week the donuts and coffee weren’t even appealing.
Today was also a good time to plan strategy for the local 5 K footrace in March. Having now determined that the course previously thought to be six miles was considerably less than that, and further measured (car odometer sets easily to zero at the start) an exact five miles, I graphed possible times for the distance from 12.3-minute miles (today’s run) down to 8.3-minute miles. Of course, since 5K actually is 3.1 miles, I could have made the course that distance, but the longer distance gives me more time to meditate.
How do you increase speed at any age? Running extra-fast for short distances between telephone poles used to help, although in those days I didn’t have much vision about feelings while doing that. Today I reminded myself that it was possible to enjoy these speeded-up times. And although the telephone lines are all buried underground here, street signs serve the same purpose.
Her words must apply in a larger sense to Haiti as well as to our smaller personal concerns.
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