My Blog

"Everybody runs, Fletch. Everybody runs. "

John Anderton - Minority Report (2002)

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Beep beep beep!! It’s 7am in the morning, you know you have to go to work. You get ready to run. Race to the bathroom, make your breakfast in a haste… heck you don’t have time for breakfast, you take it on the go.

The traffic sucks, it takes you 45 mins just to get to work, but today is especially a bad day, you’re stuck there not moving. Listening to the radio, you hear the news about the war, soaring petrol prices, and a daughter who slaughter her entire family. You wonder… what’s this world coming to? But no, the light turns green, you need to drive drive drive… keep running. There’s no time to think about the world.

At work, you look at your tasks for the day. They seem to keep accumulating, more and more. But that goes with the promotion. You’ve been promoted for the second time this year, things are going well, you are running well. But you see one member is lagging behind. You don’t like it, you’ve told her off before, seems like she doesn’t get it. So you asked her into your office, give her some nice lecture, and drop her from the team. Give her 2 weeks notice, she’s fired. You felt bad, as she was sobbing in your office… but no, no time to feel bad, you have to run. There are things to do - and the key to your constant promotions is your speed, you run very fast.

Lunch time, you go out to grab some fast food. Yes, the food has to be fast, otherwise it slows you down. You pass by this travel agent, offering a discounted holiday package to Fiji - for a second your mind wanders away… it’d be nice to have a holiday once in a while. But no, the reason you were promoted for the 4th time in 2 years is because you never take holiday. You never stopped, you keep running… fast.

Dinner time, you’re still at the office, you order this nice noodle box from the restaurant across the street. They deliver your favourite noodle right on time. You want to go home, but you don’t feel right, you know if you stay back just for half hour, you get more work done by the end of the day. So you stayed back, consequently the rest of the team stayed back. Some of them leave, and they are the same people. You smile, you know, those people who left, they are just as good as you are, but they don’t work as hard. That’s why you are promoted ahead of them. But it’s a dry smile - you know you’ve sacrificed a lot, running takes a lot of energy.

7pm, it’s time to go home. You go to your parking spot, there are just few cars left. You neve felt good to leave when there are lots of other cars parked. So you drive your car home. The ride home seems faster than the ride to office. But the phone rings, you pick it up… It’s your girlfriend, shit! you forgot that you’re supposed to take her to movie. But as usual you get away from 3rd world war, …by offering her something of value. Which makes you wonder if she’s with you, or with your money - but no time to wonder, you have to make the next left turn. And get to your home.

830pm. You get out of your bathroom, that warm shower you took somehow recharges your energy. Time to slow down. You lie down on the couch, watch your fave TV shows, do some cleaning, read some book. Then your mind wanders, the target. Yes the target, you have set yourself some standards… and they are high. You are proud that you’re on track. Quite ahead of schedule actually. You want to retire early, you don’t want to live this kind of life till 60.

10pm. You are tired, time to go to bed… tomorrow you need to go to gym to keep your shape up. Then you need to make it up to your girlfriend, dinner at 7. You wonder if you can make it, as things are picking up at work. You say your night prayer before you sleep. You need to rest, before you run again tomorrow.

Just before you sleep… there’s a little voice in the back of your head "is it worth it?" It asked you very gently. But no, you don’t have time to answer it… you need to get some rest, you know you have to run again tomorrow at 6am.

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Everybody runs, the people around us, the people you know, the people you don’t know. You can see them run everyday. Those who don’t run get left behind.

Some are running into something, some standards they set for themselves, trying to reach those goals faster. Some are running from something, from a terrible past, from the law, from their own insecurity. And then some who runs, just because they like to run. Some are running like they’re possessed by demon, some are running leisurely enjoying the view, some are running in groups, some are running by themselves… all kind of runs, you see in life.

How about me? You asked….

‘Think I prefer to walk