Lattin Baby

We just had number 5!

Sarah Elizabeth Lattin
Born Wed. Jan 19, 2011
7 lb. 14 oz.
20"

Keeping New Year's Resolutions

Last night, I had a dream that Peter was riding his BMX bike past the place where I was giving blood, so I guess I need to respond to his post. I think Peter's ideas about having a schedule and a theme are brilliant. The schedule would be the more helpful of the two. Then I can reserve books in advance and plan time on the calendar to write a post. (It's surprising how much more effort it takes to write than to read.)

In my opinion, the first schedule should include 4 books between now and the end of June. Then we can adjust from there. I know that most people won't read 4 books, but if only 2 are scheduled, then there's a greater chance that you won't like any of the options. Plus, the rotation in who gets to choose goes faster. (Note: I can be convinced of 3 if they're going to include long books, like Rob's suggestion of Ayn Rand.)

I think the theme idea is fun. I would make slight tweaks to Peter's suggested themes. For example, instead of "Leadership", I would say "Leaders and Legends", the proposed names of two divisions in the Big Ten. You can tie ANYTHING into a theme, so no one needs to feel limited. If you've ever played Bible Scattegories, you know what I mean. Of course, if you are subsequently going to ignore the theme, then there's really no point in having one. So perhaps a theme is unnecessary.

Anyway, let's get this party started. Just make a decision, Peter, and we'll all try it out. I'm looking forward to more stimulating virtual conversation this year.

Happy New Year's Day

Happy 2011 PVS!

I've been less active on the blog than I would like recently. I chalk it up to guilt over wasting spending time writing anything other than my thesis. Of course, I'm not as actively writing my thesis as I should be, so really it just means I'm depriving myself of blog activity for no good reason, but whatever. Did I mention Happy New Year?!

And welcome to mythical Rob. I'm pretty positive I invited you to join a couple of times, but maybe the hotmail address I was using was defunct.

I've been thinking about a way forward for the PVS book club; it seemed to fizzle a bit at the end of 2010, and I had a couple of ideas I thought might make it more enjoyable for 2011. First, I'd like to choose a broad theme for the year, something to tie the books together. I had thought something like "Leadership" or "Death" or "Marriage". This will decrease the eclecticism somewhat (unfortunately), but I think it might make the overall experience more rewarding. My other thought is that we should choose the list of books and discussion dates in advance (set a schedule through June, for example); according to Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, this would be a helpful nudge that might make participation easier.

So, if you like these ideas, or if you hate them, or if you have a suggestion for a theme, or if you have other suggestions on the book club, I'm pretty sure you can find the comment box. And even if you don't have any comment other than "yeah, I wanna keep the book club going," that would be still be helpful to gauge interest.

Born to Run

Well this is several months late, but a quick look at recent posts says I may not be all that late after all...

And it's too bad that the Mortensens are not coming to North Carolina. That would have been fun. I haven't seen Robert since a trip I took to Phoenix several years ago.

My answers to Alvin's specific questions are posted as a comment below. I know you are dying to read them...

One of the first friends I made when I moved to Durham was our Elder's quorum president. This guy was from the Portland Oregon area and totally fit the mold: (remember, I lived there and love it, so this is not meant in derision) he loved outdoor activities, was a conservationist, drove a Volvo, and generally eschewed unnecessary worldly possessions. They raised their own chickens and eat granola. At the same time, he's a brilliant PhD candidate. Anyway, the one truly weird thing was the barefoot running.

Apparently he had always been a runner and cyclist. Then one day at a meeting in Chicago, he meets a barefoot runner and everything changes. By the time I moved to Durham, he had run at least one barefoot marathon, using his bedroom slippers to get him through some of the more rocky parts of the course.

Bizarre!

Or so I thought...

About 6 months after I moved here, the brand new Nikes I was wearing turned out to be a bad purchase. My old plantar fasciitis was flaring up and even worse, I discovered the reality of IT band syndrome. I was limping rather severely through my life when this friend again took the chance to preach the virtues of barefoot running. I listened just enough to hear him out, but still had not considered that he may be on to anything significant.

Then I heard he was running with a track club and had posted a 4:40 mile earlier that year. The speed shouldn't have mattered to me but it did. I have a blind respect for people who are faster than I. Plus, there was no way I could afford new running shoes on our current budget.

I limped through my half marathon in March 2010, then put the running shoes in the closet.

It has been a difficult transition, to say the least. There is no small amount of pain involved with conditioning the skin on your feet, or developing muscles in your feet and calves to support the running style. For a while, I waffled back and forth between shoes and barefoot. There was a day sometime in the fall, though, when the fight was over. I was 4 or 5 miles into a run and my feet were again bothering me. I took the shoes off, finished the run, and haven't worn them since.

I don't know that barefoot running is really the answer to all my running woes. So far it has just been a pleasant surprise. I never would have pictured myself running 11 miles barefoot just for a good time, but that is what has started happening.

For Christmas, I got the Vibram FiveFingers. They are too new for me to give an opinion here, but early returns are positive.

Anyway, I did enjoy reading "Born to Run." Not coincidentally, my friend had been pestering me to read it for months. I was glad for the extra nudge from the PVS.

And as a final comment about this topic: I think the book may set a too-idealized tone about the benefits of the running lifestyle. If you could somehow magically turn our society into a society of runners, however, I believe the change would be overwhelmingly positive from a spiritual and especially medical perspective.