On Tuesday I had the worst running day since I started running last year. I barely made it .8 mile before heading to the locker room in tears (thankfully, the room was empty). I’ve had a nonstop pain in my left back rib area for months as well as an ongoing cough; both seem to be getting bad enough to start affecting my running. I had an xray and am waiting on results from a CT scan after a possible density was discovered on my lung–though they weren’t sure. I’m also awaiting results from bloodwork due to swollen lymph nodes. The uncertainty of what might be wrong, along with pain and, on Tuesday, being unreasonably out of breath, made me think the worst what-if scenarios. The waiting is bad, but the feeling that running might be threatened is almost worse! I love to run, but it is higher impact than many sports, and even though I have a 10K exactly one month from now, I know that I have to slow down until I figure out what’s wrong.
Here is hoping for the best. And that is all we can hope for.
Last night I saw two very good documentaries (we’re on a week of Vancouver Film Fest outings!): “This Changes Everything” and “Banking Nature”.
“This Changes Everything” is based upon Naomi Klein’s book of the same name, with her husband Avi Lewis being the filmmaker. The hopeful slant of the film–indigenous communities taking on polluting businesses–was empowering. I almost cried. I did feel teary seeing the strength of these people who were trying to protect their land, water, and air from being polluted and ruined by corporations with just short-term greed as their motivator. Guess who showed up at the film, on stage? That’s right: Naomi and Avi. Had I known they would be there and do a Q&A afterward, I would have stayed to talk with her myself, but we had a second film directly afterward. She is a sweet, positive, wise woman who I am thankful for, for doing so much to mitigate climate change.
The second film we saw was “Banking Nature,” a frightening film because corporations are actually putting a price on nature, so to speak–while nature itself is priceless. From the site description:
We investigate the commercialization of the natural world. Protecting our planet has become big business with companies promoting new environmental markets. This involves species banking, where investors buy up vast swathes of land, full of endangered species, to enable them to sell ‘nature credits’. Companies whose actions destroy the environment are now obliged to buy these credits and new financial centres have sprung up, specializing in this trade.
Many respected economists believe that the best way to protect nature is to put a price on it. But others fear that this market in nature could lead to companies having a financial interest in a species’ extinction. There are also concerns that – like the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 – the market in nature credits is bound to crash. And there are wider issues at stake. What guarantees do we have that our natural inheritance will be protected? And should our ecological heritage be for sale?
Tonight we are seeing “Racing Extinction,” so I’ll blog on that later.
In the meantime, I think tomorrow I’ll do a treadmill run/walk. This weekend is the big autumn trek to Wells Grey, so we’ll get plenty of hiking in. We’ll be staying at the lodge Saturday night. It’s also Canadian Thanksgiving, so we’ll spend time with family on Friday night and on Sunday. Can’t wait, and I really hope I get more running in!