i read this story in today's l.a. times about a woman who won the badwater ultramarathon, a 135-mile race in temperatures that reached 123 degrees. she won 5 hours ahead of her next competitor! this is including both men and women.

she finished in 27 hours and 56 minutes.

she started the race at 104 pounds and ended the race at 98... but that doesn't sound that bad to me, considering the exertion and the heat.

this race started in death valley (near death valley?) and ended some 8000 miles up mount whitney. check out the pictures.

(if you can't get to the story, for whatever reason, do a google search for "pam reed" and "badwater ultramarathon.")

two poems by thich nhat hanh

For Warmth

I hold my face in two hands.
No, I'm not crying.
I hold my face in two hands
to keep the loneliness warm --
two hands protecting,
two hands nourishing,
two hands preventing
my soul from leaving me
in anger.

(his note: this was written after i heard about the bombing of Ben Tre and the comment made by an American military man, "We had to destroy the town in order to save it.")


Recommendation

Promise me,
promise me this day,
promise me now,
while the sun is overhead
exactly at the zenith,
promise me:

Even as they
strike you down
with a mountain of hatred and violence;
even as they step on you and crush you like a worm,
even as they dismember and disembowel you,
remember, brother,
remember:
man in not your enemy.

The only thing worthy of you is compassion --
invincible, limitless, unconditional.
Hatred will never let you face
the beast in man.

One day, when you face this beast alone,
with your courage intact, your eyes kind,
untroubled
(even as no one sees them),
out of your smile
will bloom a flower.
And those who love you
will behold you
across ten thousand worlds of birth and dying.

Alone again,
I will go on with bent head,
knowing that love has become eternal.
On the long, rough road,
the sun and the moon
will continue to shine.

(his note: i wrote this poem in 1965 especially for the young people in the School of Youth for Social Service, who risked their lives every day during the war, recommending them to prepare to die without hatred.)