Have yourself a merry little Christmas

The silly season is upon us as they say. Though I don’t know who “they” are. The Christmas discourse is hegemonic. It is designed above all to position us and hail us as ‘consumers’ who will shop till they drop.

And so like the bride who wants a “perfect” wedding, many expect a perfect Christmas. How far that is from the reality of the majority of people for whom Christmas is a painful reminder of Christmases past and of loved ones no longer around. For some it is a time of unendurable loneliness. For others, it is a season of physical and emotional abuse.

Christmas is the training ground where people teach their children to become consumers. It is designed too ensure that that great god of the modern age – that god with impossible demands – is worshipped. That god of course is economic growth. The carpenter from Nazareth referred to it as mammon.

Indeed it can be said that the invention of the modern Christmas dates back to the mid nineteenth century and the birth of the market economy with its emphasis on economic growth.

Of course some keen folk will try to remind us of the “reason for the season”. It is astonishing just how far the modern Christmas is from the ideals of that man from Nazareth.

How then can we redeem Christmas? I think only by trying to remember that the external baubles, bangles and bright shiny beads can never be enough.

Walkin back to happiness ...

The secret to fast race walking is fast turnover, not stride length. I was looking at reruns of the Olympic 50km walk. The winner was doing 190 strides per minute. I suspect some others were over 200. Now that is really high turnover!

So the equation is S = L x F where S is the speed, L the stride length and F the stride frequency. Clearly the trade off is between L and F. Race walking coaches argue that gains in F are well worth losses in L. Overstriding is a prime mistake for novices.

I tried shorting the stride and increasing frequency the other night. It paid off. I reduced my 3 km time by 6 seconds – that is just the beginning.

Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree ....

It caught me by surprise – it is December 1st - World AIDS Day – red ribbon day. It has really flown under the radar this year.
That red ribbon, so distinctive in its time – that trend setting ribbon has lost ground to those causes (very important causes) who copied it. And so we have pink ribbons which originated in 1991 only 1 year after that red ribbon. There are yellow ribbons which signify a number of causes – among them youth suicide. And now there are white ribbons which actually date back to 1991, even though their mass appearance is only recent. Each of these now commanding more publicity than the original red ribbon. Each has its history. Hats of to the cancer society for choosing the daffodil.

For the first time I cam remember the announcers on TV this morning failed to wear the red ribbon. Let’s see what happens by tonight. But it is an interesting lesson in diminution. I guess as yet more colored ribbons appear for yet more causes, the original red ribbon is in danger of disappearing from view.



As running addict, I propose a ribbon for our disease. Any suggestions of a color?

These boots are made for walkin ....

You gotta learn to walk before you can run. Running addict is also race walking these days. But there’s a big difference between running and race-walking. You can run any darned way you like. Run like a turkey or a horse; nobody will complain. Laugh – yes: complain, no.

Race walking is another matter. There are some rules. You can’t walk any old way you like – especially if that so-called walk amounts to a run.

Now if you’re in a walk race and someone behind is breaking the rules – who cares? But when the guy ahead has lost control and broke into what amounts to a run – that my friends is entirely another matter!

You are in a running race and the person ahead breaks into a walk. Your response – joy!

You are in a walk race and the person ahead breaks into a run. Your response – resignation? Only if you are a not a competitive sort! My response is fury.

It is like the trots when the horse breaks into a gallop. So ya gotta have judges.

A white sportscoat and a pink carnation, I'm all dressed up ...

The lunacy of local government. …Dunedin city council wants to support Nu Zulun’s cricket team, the All Whites when the West Indies comes to play. It is therefore encouraging fans at the cricket ground to wear all white clothes and to shout “we’re all white here!” when the West Indies runs on to the field.

Some have raised eyebrows. On comes a … well …black team … and the crowd shouts we’re all white here”. Others have said go ahead and shout. That way we won’t be politically correct.

I predict that a crowd shouting at a black team : “we’re all white here” will not go down well in the international press and the country will once again appear as somewhat lacking in the IQ steaks ... ooops .... stakes.

PC or not – it is time for this adolescent country to strife towards adulthood.
A white sports coat

Your cheating heart will tell on you …

Idiom: To cut the corner

Sometimes cutting corners is okay. It might simply mean finding a quicker way to do something. However, there is often a lost of quality in the work achieved. Sometimes, the idiom “to cut a corner” has a negative connotation. It simply means cheating.

Runners know all about cutting corners. There is nothing more annoying than seeing a runner up ahead cutting a corner on a clearly marked course.

You cut a corner and win; you cheat and achieve your goal. What have you got? A goal and a lost soul. I’m not talking about hell here folks! I am talking about not being true to your innermost self.

The prophet Jesus of Nazareth put it well “What does it profit a person if he/she gains the whole world and yet loses his/her soul”.

Shakespeare took it up in King Lear when Polonius advises Laertes “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man” (Act 1, sc 3).

How is the air up there?

Do you hair the shift going on? As I was drinking a bear the other day I could hair it …

“You will rarely have a good time …”

I thought, what kind of advertising is this?

But the shift is on with young Nu Zulundurs.

Beer >>> bear
Hear >>> hair
Ear >>> air
Really >>> rarely

Think of those generous young farmers who share their sheep.

Now some people rarely fare for the language with this shift happening. But never fare, language is always changing. Indeed such change is a mare trifle in the scheme of things.
Indeed we should chair at the glorious dynamic of the English language.

Yes folks chair rather than snare!
and don't shed a tear (as in rip)

Anyhoo, hair them speak

What's it all about Alfie? Did I miss something??

Darn ..... it annoys me! Someone forgets to send me the crucial email about that crucial event and i am like blah??? Then they say, see you at the meeting. And I say, What darn meetin?

Left out of the loop again!

Welcome to the 21st century age of techno-failure ....

where one missed click on the mouse leaves you wondering "What the heck is this all about". You get dragged into the conversation about 50 lines in and baby you is lost!

"We need to prepare for that meeting on Tuesday!"

Huh? What meeting?

Did I miss something?

Now it is a quick check through the last million years emails...

No .... eeer .... nope .... no sir .... i don't think so .... yes definitely nothing about a meeting ... yep ... no doubt ... no meeting ... i guess ... oh stuff it ...

lets head out for a RUN!

I like the free fresh wind in my hair – the green grass under my feet

Running is a ritual – one that connects my brain with my body, and my body to the good earth under my feet and the wind in my face. It connects me to a sense of rhythm. Not just the rhythm in the run, but the rhythms of one run to the next. Running enables in Joseph Campbell’s words, the “harmonization of our lives with the order of nature”. Of course walking does the same thing and cycling.



But it is not the running or walking or cycling on those frightful things in gyms! What a metaphor they for the mechanization of modern life.

Some runners have lost the plot. They carry every kind of technical instrument with them to get feedback on their bodies. Whatever happened to simply being in tune with the body!

And while I am on it, why do some runners and many walkers have to grip on to all those water bottles? Do they serious think they are going to dehydrate in 1 hour? Fair enough in the desert, but not in the mild manner weather of Nu Zulun.

So come on folks. I call for minimalism in running.

Shorts and t-shirt, shoes and socks and a key in your pocket.

And we run because we like it through the broad bright land.

Flyin high in April, shot down in May …

Nu Zulun has voted folks!
It has been a vote for change. Of course change is that great ponderous fact of life – the only great constant. What was it that the Buddha said? Transitory, transitory are all things. Strange thing is, change is the one thing we humans tend to steadfastly resist.

Elections are a stark reminder of what Joseph Campbell called the organised inadequacies of this world. Oh yes, they grant that brief illusion of control – that somehow, maybe our destinies lie in our hands. The Tao Te Ching, however puts it plainly: “the world is forever out of control”.

We sang a great old hymn in school: “Time like an ever-rolling stream bears all its sons away. They fly forgotten as a dream dies at the opening day.” Helen has quit. Michael has quit. Winnie has disappeared from the political earth. An old familiar restaurant closes. A new one opens.

The Tao Te Ching speaks of the wise person:
“Things arise and she lets them come;
things disappear and she lets them go.
She has but doesn't possess,
acts but doesn't expect.
When her work is done, she forgets it.
That is why it lasts forever”.