Running My Mouth, Among Other Things

I love my running partner. Kami and I have been running together for about 5 years now, which I figure puts her somewhere near the required time frame for sainthood. We run together lots in the spring/summer/fall, and less in the winter when there's snow on the ground. In fact, today is the first time we've gotten together since before Christmas.

What you have to know about Kami (and I'm sure you've already deduced) is that she's a much better person than I am.

She collects food at work for canned food drives. She uses aluminum water bottles, for crying out loud. She knows all my children and what they're up to, and actually asks about them, even though she's only met them once or twice during our 5 years.... probably because I talk about them ad-nauseum when I run. See one of the major advantages of a running partner is the free therapy sessions. You can just TALK and Talk and talk!! Oh baby, we can always find something to talk about.

Her work,
my bakery,
her in-laws,
my family,
her vacations,
my family,
her new fantastic exercise plan,
my family.

Yeah, my life is a plethora of scintillating topics. Shut up.

Anyway, there are two things we rarely talk about. religion and politics. She knows how I feel about both, and I have NO idea how she feels about either. Usually I say a thing or two, and she stays totally quiet, which I take to mean that she'd rather push a garbage truck uphill at this point in the run then discuss these taboo topics with someone as opinionated as I am.

So about halfway in to our 4 mile run this morning, I sort of forgot myself and started in on the stimulus package. You know, how we could really use a stimulus plan that would actually stimulate the economy? And then I remembered who I was talking to. Because she got really quiet all of a sudden.

And in a sort of surprising turn of events, she started talking about it, and reminded me that there are a lot of people in the country who have actual hope that this thing can work, and who really need to hang on to that hope, because their lives are going downhill fast.

Wow. And a short - very short- political conversation ensued. It was interesting.

I will say though, that as soon as I remembered who I was talking to, I immediately changed the topic. Because, you know, I can hash political garbage with anybody. But finding a truly amazing running partner is a once in a lifetime deal, and after 5 years I do NOT want her to change her mind about running with me. And frankly I'd rather talk about the Biggest Loser anyway.

(That girl probably goes home every day and resolves that THIS TIME she's really gonna find someone else to run with. Sadly for her, there aren't a whole lot of women willing to freeze their heinies off in the pre-dawn winter hours, so I think I'm relatively safe. For now.)

But after I got home and thought about it a bit, I decided that since she is really a much better person than I am, maybe it wouldn't kill me to rethink my position a little bit. What's done is done, right? And because the alternative is so horrible, what would it cost me to hope the dang thing actually works?