Albion, MI

Whitehouse Nature Center Trail

Run Time: 62:19 + 2-minute kick

Another All Trails win. I finished my sales visits in Detroit, and I was spending the night in Coldwater, MI, a couple hours west, so I did a map search and came up with this splendid trail system on the grounds of Albion College. It was dirt and gravel, well-maintained, no bikes, away from traffic, and the weather was pleasant and the trail shaded.

It was a good decision to run on the Monday of a driving trip, because I was harboring a virus that knocked me down for the rest of the week. It wasn’t the Covid. I’ll call it the Sophid, after my granddaughter, who gifted it to me when we spent the weekend in Toronto with her and her mom, dad, and brother. We all ended up with it, in one form or another, because, as she explains it, it is transmitted through “kisses and snot.”

Being sick is not my favorite, and this one started with a brutal sore throat, which is my worst anti-favorite, but I can appreciate how it slows you down and makes you care for yourself. You start to appropriately value sleep and breathing and the absence of pain and discomfort, things that we under-appreciate in times of non-sickness. If we would only value these things appropriately at all times, rather than our task lists, how much happier might we be, and how much healthier might our bodies be, and how much readier to fight the microbial inhabitants of kisses and snot?

Albion is a small town in rural Southern Michigan. The University likely has something to do with the abundance of Harris-Walz lawn signs I saw, but nevertheless I found it quite encouraging to see them. In a town that small and that rural, ANY Harris-Walz signs would have been encouraging. Unfortunately, it is an anomaly. Most rural areas I travel through have been infected by a sickness much worse than a corona virus. I grew up in a rural area. It is disheartening.

When I got out to run, there was a small group of school kids on a pumpkin excursion. It appeared that pumpkins had been placed along the trail, and I suppose the kids were each picking one to take home. One might assume this is an activity organized by a teacher, or a group of teachers. Possibly someone from the University spoke to them about nature conservancy and environmental stewardship.

Our granddaughter just started preschool. My daughter shares photos she gets from the teacher showing the kids in their muck boots out in the pastures, wetlands, orchards, and woodlands of NY, having fun, absorbing sunlight, learning directly about nature, and also in their rustic classroom, crafting and creating.

Our educational system certainly has its flaws. Not every teacher is caring, conscientious, and liberal. Organized religion is always trying to push its way into education. But if education isn’t the solution to most of what is wrong with society, I don’t know what is. And if it hasn’t kept the situation from being worse than it is, I don’t know what has.

One of the reasons that childhood and youth is so magical is school. Instead of clocking in every day, it is the job of a child to learn. Would it not be a great idea for 20% of the work week to be dedicated to learning, rather than working? Just one day each week when we sharpen the saw? Sometimes school sucks, and I remember not being thrilled about getting up at 6:00 am to get ready for school, but most of us look back fondly on our time with some of the best friends we will ever have, learning from some of the best teachers and mentors we will ever have.

One of the trails was on an old railroad grade, which you could not tell was an old railroad grade except that it was straight and raised, and that it was named the Railroad Trail. It is amazing to see how quickly landscape can be returned to its natural state, given the opportunity.

Maybe in my retirement, I will go get a teaching degree and teach High School English. Or better yet, I will write a book about an old guy who gets his teaching degree and teaches High School English. This is my strategy now when I get an idea about some new venture I want to undertake. Just write a book about it. That way you control the narrative. Literally.

Maybe it will inspire others, and I can avoid the disillusionment of reality.