Via Media

I ran this evening. 5 miles. In the cold. In a ditch. Well, sort of in a ditch. I bought some new trail shoes recently, and so I try to run off road whenever possible. There was a significant section of my run today where I ran in a very shallow grassy drainage area. It made the run more difficult, but it also made it much more interesting, and, in fact, I think the challenge seemed to make it go by faster. To the right of me was a very busy road filled with oncoming traffic. To the left of me was an empty paved biking/runninng/walking trail. And there I was in between them, dodging trees and culverts, running up one side for a minute then down into to the middle flat where the grass would sink a bit more than the higher ground. It was a good time... very rewarding.

Often the "middle way" has mistakenly been seen as the easy way, or the way of one who won't choose a side. But I think the middle way, like my run today, is actually the harder route, and, in fact, the more truthful one. How so? Well, the one who runs the ditch acknowledges the terrain and accounts for it accordingly. This one must see and experience the changing world around him and be ready to identify and coherently communicate truth and goodness in the midst of it.
This via media mindset calls a spade a spade regardless of what side of the table it's dealt from. This is not neutrality, it's truth-ality. To avoid partisanship - in politics, theology, family relations, etc - one must be dedicated to the truth. And this is what ditch running is all about.

Now, we're not talking about the supercilious scientist who thinks the only way to acquire truth is by way of empirical methodology. Nor are we referring to the Pentecostal pastor who says you have to believe because "I said it." (Both of these men, or types of men, have a lot in common actually). No... ditch running requires more than that. It demands an epistemology with more breadth than either of these perspectives. The existential, the situational, and the normative all come to bear for the one who dedicates himself to the pursuit of truth and goodness.

As a result, the paved path is eliminated as an option. While it may be the easier route, the one we're used to, perhaps the perspective we've grown up with and have more inclination toward, its answers are grounded in a system that refuses to acknowledge the complexities of life and truth. Simply said, there is no gray area for those who run this path. It's all black and white. But the road can't be an option either. Those who run it refuse to acknowledge that the road they're on will lead to death. They're skeptical about the oncoming traffic and downright disgusted by those who walk the paved path. Everything is gray for them.

The ditch runner, on the other hand, runs the path of most resistance and takes flack from both sides for not joining them on the pavement or asphalt. Tension is not easy, but it reveals truth which is ultimately more rewarding than the alternatives. I say run the ditch… but be sure you have some good trail shoes!