Tonight I’m thinking about an aspect of growing up that my kids and grandkids, to say nothing of the greats, will consider unfathomable.  I’m talking about the movies.  Remember when they’d wheel the movie projector into classrooms and lower the blinds?  Then whatever boy (It was never a girl!) who knew how to thread and run the projector did so.  At that point, the lights would be turned off and the movie would start.

These were black and white movies, and not cartoons either.  They would last maybe ten to fifteen minutes.  One that was particularly memorable was The Man Without A Country—a US service man in the 1800s who, after being court marshaled and renouncing his country, was sentenced to sailing the seas for the remainder of his life.  I’m pretty sure we saw that one every year from fourth grade on.  

But the one I’m thinking about tonight is The Tortoise and the Hare.  The tortoise and hare in question were real animals as opposed to animated ones, and you all know the story.  The hare can run like crazy, but he goes dashing off hither and yon while the tortoise just keeps plugging along, and he’s the one who gets there first.

I’m the tortoise.  When Jules Verne was writing Around the World in Eighty Days, he wasn’t talking about walking.  As of April 6, I’ve been walking a minimum of 10,000 steps a day almost every day for ten years.  It’s not fast.  The days the idea of my doing 6000 steps in 60 minutes is in my rearview mirror, but last Friday, I passed another million-step milestone, clocking in at 41.  Right now I’m at 19,500 miles.  Not around the world yet, but I’m getting there.  And as of today, my walking streak is at 1333 days.  Whew!