Outrunning The Bear

Katherine and I watched the movie, The Imitation Game this past Tuesday. If you haven't seen it, or aren't familiar with the story, it's about how the real-life math genius named Alan Turing helped develope a machine that could decipher coded German Enigma messages during the Second World War. Turing's work has been estimated to have saved two to four years of the warring, and some 14 million lives. YPG. Anyway, like any historic fiction, the film took some artistic licenses as to the exact sequences and events of how it all came to pass.

One such contrived scene was when Mr Turing tried to improve office productivity by being unusually whimsical. This behavior was out of character for Turing, who was as seemingly arrogant as he was aloof. As a result, his staff hated him. What he did to try to win them over one day was to give each of his colleagues a small gift (an apple) before preceding to tell a joke. It went something like this:

Two guys were camping in the woods when a bear walked into their campsite. One guy starts frantically lacing up his boots as the other one asks, "Why are you doing that? Don't you know that you'll never outrun a bear?" To which the first replied, "I don't need to outrun a bear, I only need to outrun you."

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Lately, I've felt like I've been running a race with a bear at my heels. If it's not a race at work, or a race on the bike, then it's a race to make ends meet. Yes, it feels like a bear is chasing me. But whereas in times past the bear was a person or a material thing, I've finally come to realize that the bear is not my boss, nor is it Chris Spence or Lee Bumgarner, and it's not a bill chaser. It's simply time. Time is the bear.

So as I look over my shoulder, I see the wall clock morph into the face of a Kodiak. The clock's hour, minute and second hands like powerful legs bearing down on me. Each stroke like a thunderous foot-fall of lean muscle closing in on its prey. Time is the bear.

As I close this week's post, I am grateful for the insight that I'll never have enough time to get it all done. That said, I'll do everything possible to deliver my best with the time I currently have.

And with that, my boots are laced, and I'm off running again, this time to catch the bus to work.

Happy Friday. Thanks for reading.