A Very Public Private Man: Why I Ran The Barcelona Half Marathon In 2016

“If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people" - Chinese Proverb.

For all my study of Greek political thought, I couldn’t tell you who predates the other, Sophocles or Aristotle? I only mention this because the point I want to rely on in this blog entry, was made by both authors, yet I cannot decide who was reaffirming the other. Sophocles said call no man happy until he is dead, while Aristotle went even further and said; even if a man lives an excellent and happy life, we cannot call him happy either if his offspring fall into ruin after his death.

This tells me that it is not advisable for any mortal to claim to have the right formula for an excellent life. So, although what I am doing this 2016 is inspired by my own childhood experiences, I know it is only one of the possible pathways to excelling in life. I do not claim to be living the happiest possible life either or, even, to be in the vicinity of my goals in life. What I do claim, instead, is that I am satisficing, by which I mean I am heading in the general direction of those goals.

What started me off in the general direction of my goals is that, growing up in rural Zimbabwe, my Grandfather had a thick volume Who’s Who among his very few books. Reading what other people had achieved must have sowed the idea in my mind to emulate their pathways. It is this start in life, I wish for every one of my rural countrymen.

Now, the circuitous introduction I have put up above is only meant to support one idea and one idea only: access to books and knowledge must make for a happier life than living in ignorance. It is with this idea in mind that I have decided to make all my Marathons and Half Marathons in 2016 to be in aid of raising money to send books to rural areas in Zimbabwe.