It may be weeks before I can run again. But that hasn’t stopped me from inching closer to my own comeback. Today I reached a small milestone: I was able to cycle on the stationary bike for a full 30 minutes. I know, it doesn’t sound like much. Yet only five weeks ago, I struggled to turn the pedals for a mere 10 minutes (the minimum required for my physical therapy).
Nice short and sweet post, but I want to hear more. A little detail about what was going through your head as you pedal longer on the bike. Don't say "I know, it doesn't sound like much." We don't need to compare ourselves with you, especially if you are making a point about a comeback. We will assume in reading your post that you are making progress and that you are not operating at your normal performance level. What happened to you to make it difficult or impossible for you to run?
ReplyDeleteI like how you used this blog post as sort of an update; a la run-on tweet if you would. I agree with Drake here where he says we need more, I wanted to learn more of your condition but I think you intentionally made this post short. Maybe as an intro or maybe an appetizer into something fuller and satisfying to come, didn't you?
ReplyDeleteI like these single paragraph updates. So do your classmates.
ReplyDeleteIn pursuing good writing online, we shouldn’t lose sight of the benefits and eccentricities of the online forms. I often use the term and idea of a diary in this course as a negative, but I’m referring to the impulse to post every thought or action on the nearest digital device.
If you keep your writing focused and lucid however, the day-to-day progression of a blog is a natural and illuminating vessel for your words.
A blog gives you the opportunity to share your learning. It requires that you reveal your vulnerability, because you will show what you do not know by learning out in the open.
Life asks the same thing. Everyone is young once.
Writers fail and learn on stage and the audience shares in their learning because they are also vulnerable and do not know. Picking up a book is an admission too, so why not write one?
I’ve talked about using writing and rewriting to learn, but under the condition that you only publish your final draft.
A blog offers you the opportunity to pursue knowledge and fail and succeed out in the open –to publish in drafts.
Any great book or idea is such a journey; the author must be willing to take it.
You are going through physical therapy. You are hurting and fighting and sharing that vulnerability. Some days, you might not have the optimism to write. Some days, pessimism might inspire you to write volumes.
The road of drafts cannot be as clean as a final manuscript, but on a blog, after enough days, it is its own type of manuscript. The resulting honesty is a powerful form of knowledge.
If you can write one single, well-manicured paragraph, it is enough. The journey and voice advance.