The Lonely Road

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this in the past, but running is a lonely man’s game, at least it has been for me.  For some odd reason, I have never been able to run with a training partner… could it be due to my somewhat unusual hours of operations?  Or perhaps my “sort of” unorthodox antics tend to keep other runners at bay… who knows, but it’s been kind of lonely for me out there on the road.  To some extent, I have enjoyed my alone-time and have used it to do some creative thinking and careful pondering.  And some of that thinking actually led to me to question the underlying reasons for my loneliness…

Despite the fact that we have thousands of Facebook friends, the reality is – we have fewer real friends than ever before in recorded history.  I am serious, it is an established fact.  I am talking about real friends, those that will go to bat for you.  Those numbers have gone down universally over the last 20 years.  But why is that; how is it possible that despite the overall population growth and superior technology, we now have less good friends than we ever had in the past…?

I think I will venture a guess and will openly blame Facebook and other social means of connecting with others.   They are to blame!  People are getting used to communicating online to such an extent that real-life communications are rapidly declining and we feel more comfortable “trusting” someone online rather than exposing ourselves to the risks and dangers of real human friends.  There, I said it.  When you confide in someone online, you are in no danger of a long-term attachment, it’s just an image on the screen, a moniker that may disappear at any moment.  Can’t quite do that with a real person, much tougher to find a real companion there…

Stallone’s words: D.T.A (Don’t Trust Anyone) seem to be the new way of life in today’s world.  We trust less and hence have less close, real people next to us.  And so, here I am, running by lonesome self while communicating with thousands online and I guess it’s perfectly fine, it’s all good and I can live with it.  Of course, I do miss those days when “friend” was not a Facebook quantifier, but a real-life term… But, whether you are alone or with hundreds of close friends (real ones) – remember to always

KEEP IT RUNNING!