A good 15 minutes ago I closed Haruki Murakami's "What I talking about when I talking about running." I made it to the other side. Even if it is a good book I always feel kind of relieved that it's over and if it's a really good book there is a sadness, as if someone dear to me would have left this world. Right now I'm in a subtle grief.
Balance and discipline
Actually I wasn't at all interested in running, and if it wasn't Mr Murakami that had written it, then I don't think I would ever end up reading about running. To be honest it wasn't an amazing book, but what was amazing was this little man who had a jazz bar and sold it to start writing books and train hard for marathons, despite most of his surroundings telling him not to. Mr Murakami goes his own way. His discipline is admirable and I feel inspired to, although with a more gentle approach, try to find balance between my creativity and my yogic training.
This is the second book I read by Haruki Murakami. Previous was "Kafka on the shore" and it was pretty interesting. Strange but full of inspiration and beautiful almost movie scenes.
Perfect alignment
This is also the second book I read in my life that seems to just be perfectly aligned with my universe and where I am at the time.
It could be little things like he's writing about the falling rain and how good things can come from it, where I would look out and think to myself... Ah, well that's true. If It wasn't for the rain then I wouldn't be sitting here right now, reading that line... or another time when he mentioned running girls with their ipods on, earplugs in and ponytails swaying from side to side as the come trotting down the street, and shortly after... there they were!
Sometimes it would be just the right sentances for the moment. A paragraph that not only longed to be quoted, but also seemed to fall into place the topics that had been floating around in my mind. If it would have been a game of "memory" then the game would be over quickly.
Then there was the thing about the knees. And this really puzzles me.
For those of you who haven't read my previous posts I've been a bit stiff, since I got a cold. Especially feeling limitations in the knees. Then I went to yoga class. The knees got worse. So since I can't practice, I read instead. Which led to me stumbling upon a chapter where he's really down. Everything's seemingly stuck or going backwards... and what should be his biggest problem at that moment? Of course... the knees. In particular the right one. What are the odds?
Quotes
At times the book has a soundtrack, which is one of the things I loved with "Kafka on the shore" as well. It is also very quotable. I folded some pages, sometimes forgetting that it's a library book. I've narrowed it down to just a few that feel right for the moment (please take note that this is a book originally written in Japanese, translated to Swedish and now I'm trying to get it right in english...)
"It is said that physical pain is the basic condition for to truly understand things."
"The wall dividing a healthy self-confidence and unhealthy boldness is very thin."
"... there are few arguments for me to continue running the way I am, but far more than a truck load against it. The only thing I can do is to continue to carefully polish those arguments for it. As soon as I have a moment to spare, I diligently polish them one by one without missing anything."
