Boston Light

April 15, 2019

Greetings from the brilliance,

I am sitting in a dark room, muscles twitching, my mind already flying over roads that wait for my feet.  I am on the edge of a day filled with possibilities, both challenge and triumph.  There will be moments, soon, when the excitement will be so powerful that smiling will not be enough, the emotions will roar out of me.  Even now I can feel it building, and the light is already shining out of me into the morning.

There was a time when people would gather around a fire, a brightness in dark or cold, and take comfort in each other’s company.  The light shone in their eyes and it created kinship, a bond that multiplied through all of human experience. 

There was a time that runners would travel between towns, messengers, bringing news from one place to the next.  They connected the places, the people, with the words they brought. They would go great distances, often alone, often in the dark.  But they carried the light.

Time thinned the connection between us all.  The world has changed, the light gets pushed away for some, forgotten, because we have all of this other stuff to keep our attention.  Too often we see the light and we don’t even recognize it.  More often all we see is the absence of light in the world.

Saturday, I was in a sea of people, high octane athletes, people who generate gigawatts, people who carry on a tradition that is thousands of years old.  They carry the light.  The man behind me in line was from Kent, England.  He wore a shirt that said he finished a triathlon in Paris.  He had a mischievous look on his face, someone who was looking for fun.  We struck up a conversation that I have had with hundreds like him.  This guy, he had the light in his eyes. 

Yesterday morning I sat in the hotel lobby before dawn, thinking about this, about you, wondering how to tell you any of this.  A man walked in, searching for coffee.  He was from Denmark.  We talked for fifteen minutes but I knew in the first second that he had the light.  It is more than the smile, or the anticipation, or excitement.  It was in his eyes, this focus that was just beyond the two of us, something that made him shine.

For all of us there are gifts, or strengths, that we uncover during our life that we know we were meant to tap into.  It can be creating something, or helping someone, or satisfying work, or loving someone.  It may be an expression of you in motion, being, as our friend Emerson said, ‘a good animal’.  Sometimes you spot it in elite athletes who get paid, or get Gold, or get records.

I see it in people who have found their passion.  I’ll admit I am a little envious sometimes, to see someone connect with the light, the thing they were created to do or be.  Then I remember; I carry the light too.

I am in Boston, a city of incredible energy and varied experiences and such beautiful texture and sound I sometimes don’t know where to look.  The architecture, the history, the vibrance of its people, rich in diversity and mashed cultures.  Boston, our host for this weekend for the oldest and most prestigious marathon in our country, has thrown open its arms, as it has for generations, and made us welcome.

Yesterday morning I went to Old South Church, just a few feet from the Boston finish line, and sat with hundreds of other runners for the Blessing of the Athletes.  It was a moving and inspiring message that began with a welcome which, in essence, said this: You have come to our city with your power and your positivity and your possibilities, and we needed you.  He described this thing we do, that outstrips ethnicity and culture and politics and gender.  Beyond the things that may divide us, or the daily dross that seeks to chew us into something smaller than we are meant to be.  He said, in my words, ‘I see your light, and I am grateful for it.’

Just a week ago I spoke to a group of runners back in my hometown, and reminded them of the light they bring.  The light they share with other runners they will help train, and in turn, the light we show the rest of the world.  I said it because I believed it, but then I came to Boston.  Now, tears in my eyes, my friends, I am telling you, we paint the world with this light.

This morning the sky is grey, the rain is coming at us with intention, as if it had a chance to dim what we carry.  The light is in us.  We carry it today, a flame in two cupped hands, this passion we connected with and made stronger with our will.  We surge into this day, each of us carrying what we brought.  And when we are together, it is brilliant. 

In just a few hours, we will wait in Hopkinton to be released into the day.  The rain will not dim the light.  The wind will not cause it to flicker.  It is a light made from what our Creator poured into us, forged with our work, our courage, our determination.  And now we will sear the road from that start down the winding road to Boston, bring the light to a million witnesses who will be changed for the better for having seen it.  ‘To change the world, it starts with one step…’

We bring the light not because we have an agenda or want to recruit others, or to sell something or change people who don’t care.  We bring it because that’s us at our best, it is what we were born to do, an expression of one of the gifts we have been given.  The great news is that everyone, every single soul, has the light in them.  It is just waiting to be uncovered and shone on the rest of us.  I say, bring it.  We need you.

Hope this finds you feeling the fire,

David