Reading and Running..
No, I am not talking about the time you read Goosebumps at age nine while you alone at home, and suddenly found yourself knocking on your neighbours’ door mid-way through page 19, when the evil, evil, Slappy Dummy makes his first appearance.
I am talking about this wonderful statement made by the Hollywood actor Will Smith, at the 2005 Kid’s Choice Awards, the essence of which I will quote here:
“The key to life is running and reading. When you’re running there is a little person that talks to you. And that little person says to you ‘oh I’m tired! My lungs are about to pop! I’m so hurt! There’s no way I can possibly continue.’ If you learn how to defeat that person when you’re running, you will learn how to not quit when things get hard in your life. And the reason that reading is important is because there have been millions and millions of people that have lived before us. There’s no new problem you can have that someone hasn’t already solved and wrote about it in a book.”
(As a part of an interview, same thought elaborated here)
Now that is not a bad message to be giving to kids. I personally swear by both these activities. In fact, I will put reading and running at the top of all other things, if listing out things I derive the most satisfaction from. The world would definitely be a much better place, if everyone did reading and running for 30 minutes every single day.
Though I haven’t been running much these days (because of the rains, mainly), I have definitely been reading a little, so that’s something. Need to re-learn how to finish books I have started and also have to buy a skipping-rope to fill in for the running during the monsoons.
Today’s must-do list then:
1. Buy a skipping rope
2. Finish the book I am reading (Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban – I know, I’m a bit behind!)
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