#1. RUNNING MAKES ME FEEL THE TRUTH AND SHOW THE TRUTH!
OK, I am going to go deeper eventually, but let’s start out at the gut level. Running makes you feel the effect of your dietary decisions. If you eat that piece of pizza right before you go out for your daily run, you will KNOW that you ate that piece of pizza, possibly in a very personal way. There are foods that make me feel better when I run. When I run, my body gives me truthful feedback when I make good or bad dietary decisions.
When you make a habit of running, you get to see improvement. You see yourself getting faster and being able to run longer distances. For some lucky runners, you will even see it in the mirror or on the scale.
In any kind of transition, from starting a new job to starting hormone replacement therapy, there is a need for honest self-evaluation. You are changing, and others’ perceptions of you will change too. You need to have clear eyes and an almost clinical situational awareness. By being honest with yourself, you can make course corrections, if necessary. A habit of running can put you in an honest frame of mind to carry this truthfulness into your personal life. Where are you going? How are you getting there? Is this the right direction? Why are my shoes always untying?
This kind of self-reflection can be difficult. I read a recent survey which showed that a majority of Americans would rather be comfortable than know the truth. Certainly, those two desires are not always mutually exclusive, but if one has to pick, it looks like the big winner is comfort. Not surprisingly, but sadly, Republicans outpolled Democrats in this regard. FoxNews exists for a reason.
When Trump was elected, my plans to come out as transgender took on a new meaning. His past record showed that he would be a president who perpetually told blatant, easily-refuted lies. These lies, however lame or nonsensical, still made his base comfortable. I was going to, in my own small way, show them what truth looked like by coming out.
A person who is entrenched in ideology can now change the channel instead of having to do the work of changing his mind. In this comfort, he will be sheltered from facts that might make him reconsider his worldview. I often think that if there was a FoxNews Channel for infants, it would make its money by touting the dangers of walking, and how crawling is God’s plan. In other words, keep babies satisfied with where they are so they keep watching.
While running, I am OK with the discomfort of the truth I find myself in the middle of. In fact, sometimes it’s beautiful and profound. Running has trained me to feel and appreciate the beauty of truth even when it is painful.
I now get to bring the discomfort of truth to others in a respectful, loving fashion. When I sit down next to someone in a restaurant, they get to see me as just another human. That guy driving the Hummer might just whiz by me but, a little further down the road, he might realize what he just saw. He will also see that some trans people are not lazy, are part of the community and look as bad in lycra as anyone else. Citizens in my community can see me at work, putting out a fire, starting an IV or a doing something else good for them or their family. I am lucky that I get to be an active agent of the love we citizens of Spokane have for each other.
There is no changing the channel on these experiences. Hopefully, people who are addicted to the comfort of untruths, including lies about LGBT people, will get to see that I am a good person, a hard-working person and a conscientious person, and I am a trans person. Whatever you have been programmed to believe about people different from you, you will have no choice but to stack that programming up against a real, likable (on a good day) trans person like me. This is not a new tactic to change the hearts of people. African-American people, people of different faiths, Hispanic folks and Lesbian and Gay people, and many others, have been doing this for years. They did this by simply being visible and living their lives. This was, and still is, a mundane daily act of courage. Yet, many in our nation have paid dearly for daring to do it.
Being truthful about things that are hard to admit may have huge political implications. If the collective modus operandi of Donald Trump and present Republican politicians was considered a vampire, and if the only way you could kill this vampire was with a metaphoric stake through the heart, that stake would simply be the truth. And my telling of my once-shameful, once-embarrassing truth, was one little hammer swing upon that stake. I invite you all to do the same. For some of you, it will be admitting that you were wrong to vote for President Trump and other Republicans, and that the news source that keeps you comfortable led you astray. Truth, like running, is often uncomfortable. But once you take that first step, the next will be easier and easier.
It’s why fascist regimes do not like subversives. Subversive displays - art, literature, music, poetry, etc. affect people with the truth on a level that goes beyond our understanding. Often it is life-altering - for the artist and the observer. There is so much risk involved for both; it creates a bond.
In the world in which we now live, running is a subversive truthful act. It will change you and others in unfathomable ways.
TO BE CONTINUED!
