A flat two-mile course²¹

I have been asking the boys to find me a two-mile course to run — flat, without sidewalks and side streets and no more than ten minutes away by car. Nobody has been successful; perhaps nobody ever will be successful. Vinaya last week told me he had found a place. I believed him, and he took me there. God! It was a useless road! He wasted my time, but I forgave him.

Then, three days ago, he said he had found Heaven on earth. Those were his words. I said, “To find Heaven on earth is really something!” So I went to see his Heaven. It was Heaven, according to Vinaya — our old course at my seven-mile mark. His course was full of small pebbles and stones, and it was not even clean. It was very bad, very bad! The other day Lorne took me to a place that he said was extremely beautiful. He said that Kanan was the witness, that Kanan had taken him there. So I went to see the place. O God! It was almost like a highway, with a tiny path for cyclists on the side. Thousands of cars were going by very fast. So how could I run? That was Lorne’s place. Like that, many people tempt me to go and see their discoveries, but their discoveries always frustrate me.