While reading The Liturgy of the Hours during Lent, I came across the following reading:

While all the runners in the stadium take part in the race, the award goes to one man.  In that case, run so as to win!

Athletes deny themselves all sorts of things.  They do this to win a crown of leaves that withers, but we a crown that is imperishable.

I do not run like a man who loses sight of the finish line.  I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing.

What I do is discipline my own body and master it, for fear that after having preached to others I myself should be rejected.

I recall being incredibly moved when I read this passage; I read it at a time when I felt I had “lost sight of the finish line.”  For me, shadowboxing is sleeping in on the weekend instead of getting up early, taking too many coffee breaks, surfing the net instead of coding sites.  It’s the tendency to coast when I could be pushing further – running “so as to win.”

And now when I come across challenges, and have the choice to sidestep it or push myself, I think of this passage – so that “I do not fight as if I were shadowboxing.”

I used a nice quiet Christmas Eve to upload a bunch of photos from Spain to Flickr:

The new version of Flickr Uploadr seems to have messed up the descriptions a bit, but at least the major upload is done.

I’m not sure what’s the most surprising:

1. My friend Bruce Kaye has a blog
2. I’m browsing it at 11:30pm on Friday night
3. Today’s entry is “the big news around here is that I’m getting hitched“, which is the first time I heard about it.

Bizarre – this is the first time I’ve learned about a major life change from someone’s blog.  Welcome to marriage announcements in the 21st century!

Congrats Bruce!

Seen in Newburyport – a poster of the wraparound cover to the next Harry Potter book:

I don’t know – seems lackluster somehow.  I do wonder what Harry and Voldemort are reaching towards – it appears to be something just above the top of the cover.