It has been a busy while for me here at the Big Swan offices currently located at an undisclosed location by the pond. Other priorities have kept me laser focused on matters not involving updating this blog/newsletter/website. I have thought about transferring this publication to some other platform, one with more opportunities for visibility and perhaps monetary gain. But that would take Work, and I think of this as Fun, and all Work and no Fun makes Jack - or Will, in this case - a dull boy. So there.
Okay. I did take a day off to watch the Boston Marathon with my wife, as I had a dear friend running in it this year. We posted up at the twenty-mile marker in Newton at about 9:30 in the morning, where the neighborhood near Commonwealth Avenue was already crowded with revelers. Dunkin’ Donuts was giving away free coffee, donuts, and swag. Owners of the million-dollar homes were watching the festivities from their front porches while visitors camped out by the barricades, crowding each other with their phones at the ready to catch the professional runners as they sped past on nothing but their two feet.
I have only experienced the New York City marathon up until this past year. While that marathon is a joy to watch - with runners whizzing through Brooklyn and across the bridge to Manhattan, thundering past landmarks such as the Empire State Building and Central Park - the Boston Marathon is truly a cultural moment. It was a day of community coming together even before the 2013 bombing, and now it is even more so. Even total strangers feel like familiar neighbors. Everyone is in it for the same reason: There’s nothing to gain and nothing to lose. There is only the thrill of watching people chase an incredible accomplishment.
And the Boston marathon truly takes runners through the gamut of the Greater Boston area. They start in sleepy Hopkinton, and as they run, the buildings grow taller, the crowds get louder, and the challenge becomes greater. They travel through the more wood-lined areas of Ashland and Framingham, across from the busy streets of Natick, past the collegiate buildings in Wellesley, and down the neat roads of Newton. Then they reach Heartbreak Hill just past the twenty-mile mark, where most runners fear to tread. But if they can make it up the incline, they’re clear to hustle towards Brookline and the Boston city limits, where they finish on Boylston Street fully immersed in the skyline and the screams and shouts of their families, friends, and unfamiliar folks who have come to see them raise their hands into the air in defiance of human limitation. Few people choose to run 26.22 miles. But those who do deserve great praise.
My good friend has trained for years to reach this moment. He started running as a salve to stave off some personal darkness. He began entering 5Ks, 10K, and half-marathons to get better. He toned his body and mind to achieve greater things. To see him pass by us with a big smile on his face was nothing short of exhilarating. I knew this man when he was eighteen years old and unsure of quite a few things. That feels like a million years ago. A more confident man has taken his place.
All of human emotion - joy, fear, heartbreak, victory, relief - happens at the Boston Marathon. People grow within the hours it takes them to complete the course, even if they’ve run it for years. Spectators learn more about the human spirit at the Marathon than in most other places. They see the resilience of runners whose legs threaten to give out under them. They see the hope on the faces of runners young and old who are just one step closer to reaching that finish line. They reach over the bannister to lend a hand to runners who fall to pick them back up. There is no better opportunity to see what goodness humans are capable of than at the Boston Marathon.
And thank goodness it was a nice day. After such rain and clouds and cold and snow, it was nice to sit out in the sun and seventy degree weather and enjoy some Dunkies with the neighbors.
That’s all I’ve got for you today. Just a quick check-in. But perhaps there will be more Big Swan heading your way. Perhaps not. The only way you’ll know is if you subscribe and tell your friends about Big Swan. Okay. Thanks for reading.