I do not expect to run a marathon. Pheidippides ran 26.2 miles to announce that Athens would not be annihilated by the Persians in 490 BC. That makes perfect sense to me.  That scale of good news is worth the effort.  But I am not an Attic Greek.  Running twenty-six miles for personal satisfaction escapes me.

But I celebrate those who chose to run.

My daughter in law is a veteran marathon runner and our family was present yesterday when she ran the Chicago marathon.  As we boarded the elevated train at Oak Park for Chicago I noted my cell phone

news feed.  A story was featured from the Washington Post,–yet another attempt to characterize our troubled nation.  In that moment i realized that the only thing that matters at all, is what is happening locally, within eyesight and touch of my family and my neighbors.  So for a few

hours I put the scrum of politics, and the poisoning of the Supreme Court out of my mind.  I wanted to see the runners, to cheer them on mile by mile, until they reach sight of the finish line in Grant Park.

Chicago is a world-class city and I am reminded of the logic of scale whenever I go to the city.  The individual is dwarfed by the immensity of the buildings, the extent of the chain of neighborhoods, and the breadth of the boulevards.

We arrived at the race course in a soft rain.  These photos were taken at about mile 14, a little more than midway through the race.  I can imagine that some runners were on the edge of losing body heat as the rain fell and a gentle breeze cooled the body by evaporation.  Endurance, the maintenance of well-being is directly related to air temperature, to weather, in other words to Nature’s permission.

Standing at curbside I took note of the indications of national origin.  I could plainly see the ethnic diversity of the runners.  The variety of cultural backgrounds, and the many types of life circumstances represented by the runners, each with a story worth telling impressed me as an important aspect of the event.  It is only as we are able to bring all that we are, and have become

to a common cause, that great and necessary things can be accomplished.  No accomplishment of any of these runners, and indeed of any other human being on a grand quest, a significant endeavor–is accomplished alone.  Each of us is a compilation of many supporting histories.  No one runs for him or herself alone.

The idea of building a great wall to keep others away suddenly seems monumentally absurd.

A few photos will tell the story of the delightful differences that together composed the raucous, melodious roar of the Chicago Marathon.