Local Adventures: Lessons from Running Across 24 Bridges and a Few More Thoughts

... about the contrast of humanity

Today a friend and I ran all the bridges in Paris. 24 of them, to be exact. It took us a little under two hours to complete and by the end we had run 10 miles or 16 kilometers.

Last week I ran from my apartment on the eastern edge of the city, past the Bastille, all the way up to the famed Sacre Coeur, then down Rue Montmartre, to the Egyptian obelisk, and across to Jardin des Tuileries.

These two little run adventures reminded me that we don’t have to travel too far from where we live, to have a meaningful experience. That’s what our club president, Chuck, said at our Toastmasters club meeting this week and I think he’s right.

Although both of these were running related, it was just fun to make a challenge and go out to meet it. We can make our regular routines more exciting and enjoyable. We encounter other people and see different sights.

Part of why I love running is just being out and about in the city watching people in their routines. The baker opening the shop, street sweepers doing their thing, waiters clearing tables.

Currently I’m in Paris for a bit over a month. I don’t feel the need to visit every museum or feel crunched for time doing all the tourist things. It has been nice just living normal life here, like going on runs.

Mostly I’ve been realizing the little moments such as sitting on a terrace sipping my morning coffee without rushing, or hearing the birds out my window, or enjoying a croissant while watching passerby’s… those are all incredible little moments that shouldn’t be taken for granted.

Last night, for example, I went with a friend to an event called Luminisence. It was in one of Paris’s oldest churches late at night. A magnificent light and sound show combining a live orchestra with incredible colorful lights transforming the church.

It was a reminder that life’s most simple things— music, light, colors, geometry, can reach the soul so deep. Even just that experience made the day so meaningful. But it’s easy to forget those simple elements are what make being human so special.

As I sat in the church, I couldn’t help but being in awe that humans create such spectacular things. But at the same time humans can be cruel and indifferent. The spectrum of being human on this planet makes it difficult to process such magic exists on the same earth as such cruelty and indifference. How can both happen at once?

It’s by being out in the world, out near people, out having conversations, out making challenges, and out living daily life… that we are all able to experience more of what the human experience is. That we can try to be more understanding, more kind— to ourselves and to others.

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As I write this, it’s 11:11pm on a Thursday. I’m at my neighborhood’s classic Parisian bistro. The kind with the little wooden tables and plastic woven chairs on the street. The restaurant is full of people chatting. No one at all is looking at their phone. Everyone seems to be enjoying their drinks or meals and good conversation. The metro sign is lit up in red across the street and people are still trickling in and out of the trains. People are jogging, walking, smoking, lost in thought. The city is bustling and I’m enjoying a little writing moment watching the world go by.