Running is an art! This will make you fall in love with running

Is running an art, and are runners artists? The best answer is Picasso's answer. Someone once asked him, "What is art?" He replied, "What is not art?"

Therefore, running, like everything else we do, is an art. When I run, I know this is true. No matter how ordinary my performance, running is my art and I am the artist. Running is to me what dancing is to others. Running is the oldest and noblest art. My ancestors knew how to run before they knew how to dance. Running gives me the perfect combination of form and substance, not dancing.

Running also suits Herbert. Definition by Herbert Read. He said that art is an escape from chaos, numbered movements, matter limited by scale, and material in search of the rhythm of life. You can almost believe that Reed had his eyes on the runner as he wrote this definition.

Where better to escape chaos and find order? Where else would the movements be more numbered by pace, breath, minute, mile? Where else are there clearer definitions of space, matter, the leanness of the runner, and the endlessness of the road? Where else, at least for me, can I find the rhythm of life, listen to my body and hear it speak to my soul?

Because the body becomes the soul and the soul becomes the body, running becomes a holistic experience . Running is an art, and it is more than just an art. It itself provides a level of thinking and abstraction that is superior to other arts. A painter once said, “It takes me hours to read, then to think about what I’ve read, to integrate it, and then to be alone. Compared to that, the time I spend on the canvas is actually insignificant.”

Runners, on the other hand, are always on this canvas. He is constantly observing, feeling, analyzing, and meditating; he is constantly capturing the preconscious that stores prejudices. This preconscious stubbornly refuses to illuminate the present with our past experiences, and the runner explores the instincts and emotions in front of it, even sinking into what can only be called a mysterious state.

The runner's failure is as an artist. He may have been able to express these feelings and insights, and perhaps he did, but no one saw it. He fails in the primary function of the artist, which is to convey his knowledge of the emotions he has had. Even poets who can observe life from different heights see runners almost on the same plane.

"He appears alone/appears and passes by/alone is enough." Solitude, movement, and sufficiency are the runner. The world didn't know him any better.

All this will change over time. Running is an ancient art that has only recently become popular again. We are still learning how to formulate a complete response. In busy traffic, I might be like Buster. Buster Keaton is equally deadpan. But on the lonely road and in the empty jungle, my inner self was becoming clear. There, I responded to the grass, the dirt, and the fallen leaves. My running is part sunshine and part shadow, and the wind blowing across my face and back. If you saw me, you would see elation, skill, struggle, frustration and despair. I revealed sadness and anger and resentment and a fear of dogs and people and heights, a fear of the dark and being lost and alone.

But does it matter whether others understand us or not? Especially people other than runners? We don’t necessarily want to persuade them to try running themselves, but to encourage them to find their own art, to be their own artist, to listen to the inner voice that is calling them to exist in the world in their own way.

Runners know this necessity. I knew that although I was free to be anything else, I insisted on being a runner. Ortega puts it this way: "You can be whatever you want to be. But only by choosing a certain type can you become the kind of person you must be."

As I ran, I came to understand Ortega's words. I have found my particular genre, heard the voice that called me, found my art. I am the medium through which I experience and interpret life. I'm not worried, running isn't enough to accomplish this. William. James once spoke of a young man learning about himself and his instincts and emotions: "In the absence of practical material things, sports saved him and helped him complete his education." I understand the truth he was trying to convey.

This article is from "I Run, Therefore I Exist" published by Yuanliu Publishing