Key West: I’m back...and it's been way too long, about 2 years in fact.
I can think of no better way to end this spaghetti monster-less cluster-crap bummer of a year than with a respite in my happy place.
This is my fourth time here in Key West. I first arrived in February of 2012, then we took our family down here in November of 2013. We spent part of December of 2014 here and now, two years later we’re back.
I was going to compile a list of the good, bad and ugly events of the past year…as a way of putting that all behind me…but, now that I’m here…just 90 miles north of Cuba, I’m going to be mindful, and focus on the present instead.
Long time listeners might have heard me wax poetic on the beauty of this little island in episode 322
“Running Across the Frozen White Wasteland” as well as episode 311 “A Run on Cayo Hueso” or finally episode 287 “Hemingway’s Key and Life to its Top”.
Those episodes made a good case for coming here for vacation and recovering from the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”. But, this time I want to do something a little different.
I want you to be here and experience this mindful present as only a podcast can present.
Back in the early days of social media, a podcast “sound seeing tour” was a recording of an event or series of moments with only a minimal narrative introduction to set the scene.
Episodes of Phedippidations where I ran a road race or marathon are good examples of these kinds of “sound seeing tours”. So in this episode, I’m just going to let you hear and imagine this place…my favorite happy place in an audibly intimate way. Think of this as a kind of a therapeutic audio podcast postcard from Key West Florida.
Psychotherapy is the use of psychological methods, based on regular personal interaction, to help improve an individual's well-being and mental health.
I am woefully unqualified to speak on the topic Psychotherapeutic remedy: but it seems to me that psychotherapeutic conditions can be found through: Exercise, especially running; meditation, prayer, spending time and engaging in conversation with people you care about and being outdoors; admiring and contemplating the beauty of this world.
But this part of the world, this place on the planet is unlikely to be the same
And that means that this place that I love, this place that brings me such joy…will not be a place thatI could safely visit in the latter years of my life. The economy here will grind to a halt, the infrastructure will be damaged beyond reasonable repair and the ecology: the beautiful flora and fauna of the Keys, will die.
But I am here today, enjoying the present in this beautiful part of the world.
So, let’s enjoy this beautiful part of the world, with it’s great restaurants, bars and impeccable weather. This isn’t the Parrot Head Key West that Jimmy Buffet tries to sell you on; this is something so much better and special.
This is the place of Cuban cigars, Ernest Hemingway, Duvall Street, Mallory Square, the Southernmost point, Tennessee Williams, Sloppy Joes, and the Green Parrott. It’s a place that is dear to me on so many different levels.
This is my happy place.
And with that applause, the crowd on Sun Set Pier witnessed another beautiful sunset and the end of another beautiful day.
In my personal search for happiness, I’ve found that catching up with friends regularly, is the best therapy. Being here, on the island of Key West, is pretty good therapy as well.
Everyone here is happy, everyone here is relaxed, everyone here savors the experience of being here in the mindful present. This feeling is infectious; and while I know that I’m carrying a big writhing fetid virtual bag of suck with me everywhere I go; friends, human interaction, a Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitor, grandchildren and right now: the southernmost city in the United States: Key West helps to lighten that load.
Again, I know nothing about human behavior psychology. It was the one course in college that I ever flunked…but it seems to me, from my non-scientific impression that experiencing beauty is therapeutic.
And while it probably takes an awful lot of practice: just image how much happiness could be achieved if we found beauty in almost everything we experienced?
- A friendly bar where shoes are optional
- The waves on a beach
- A breathtaking sunset
- Colorful roosters
- Warm weather and Cloudless blue skies
- Great food
- Good friends
- and Family
After a week in Key West, my wife and I drove across the state to Cape Coral to spend time with my son Chris, his wife Steph and my grandchildren Kiana, Kyla and Christopher.
I feel like I did find happiness on this vacation, and something more: I don’t think that I have to go back to Key West for a while. I love it there, of course…but the things that I most love about Key West I feel I can find elsewhere…wherever there’s beauty to to behold and friends and family to spend time with.
I’m still carrying that bag of suck with me, but I’m getting much better at living with it, it doesn’t seem as heavy as it once did…and part of the reason for that, I think, is due to the therapy I received in Key West and most of all: for knowing that there is a happy place for me in this world.
Happy Holidays and Yule
However you cerebrate it. Hopefully you’ll do so with friends and family.
As for myself, I’ll spend much of the holidays in just that fashion: At my parents house on the 25th and then on Cape Cod with friends to cheer in the new year and kick the old one in the ass on it’s way out the door.
I’ve mentioned this in previous years…and maybe it’s something that you learn to appreciate as age begins to shorten your chromosomal telomeres…you should enjoy the company with friends and family…even if they’re not Red Sox fans or voted wrongly in the Presidential Election…savor their presence…we won’t be together forever.
That’s something we really ought to focus on more: the impermanence of the people in our lives; and yes: I’m including puppies and pets in that discussion.
Your presence may be the greatest gift that you give someone this year. Give it as if it’s the last time you can.
Someone recently asked me how I can live my life now, without believing in an afterlife. “That’s easy” I told them: “I have more to live for…because this, is all there is.”
It’s a sobering thought to consider between glasses of eggnog this Holiday Season, but I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.
Life is short, but it should be long enough.
I’m Steve Runner, reminding you to Run long and Taper