JUDY WOODRUFF: It's winter.
It's dark before 5:00, and there are so many
rabbit holes beckoning to you on your computer
screen and to your smartphone.
And yet there's an alternative.
Many of you will recognize Peter Sagal as
the voice and the host of NPR's "Wait Wait...
Don't Tell Me!"
Tonight, he shares his Humble Opinion on the
joys of running.
PETER SAGAL, NPR: This is a strange thing
to say from the other side of the screen that
you happen to be staring at, but go outside
right now.
OK.
Wait until I'm done.
So use these three minutes to find your shoes
and get a coat if you need one.
We spend our time now starring at screens
for our work, our entertainment, our news.
When, for whatever reason we can't look at
a screen, we put in headphones and listen
to something, music, a podcast, to while away
the otherwise unbearable time our eyes have
to be focused on something else, like the
road we're driving down.
There are people who fall asleep with their
earphones in listening to a podcast in order
to drift off.
Sometimes, it's my podcast, or so they tell
me, and I don't exactly know how to feel about
that.
What that means is, we hardly spend a minute
of our waking life without input, somebody
else's thoughts inundating our own.
Why?
What is it about our own thoughts that are
so unbearable that we can't stand to spend
a minute alone with them?
There is only one way to find out.
Turn it all off and go outside, run, if you
feel up to it, or maybe even if you don't.
This is the primary reason I advocate running
for everyone who is physically capable.
Yes, you might lose weight and gain fitness
and feel more alert and awake and even enjoy
nature's best antidepressant, endorphins.
But that is really not the most important
reason to run.
What running really is, is a way to leave
this digital dystopia behind, if only for
a little while and a few miles.
Humans evolved over millions of years, shaped
by our environment, which historically didn't
include Bluetooth earbuds.
Why did some ancient ancestor of ours in Central
Africa first stand on her back legs?
It was to look around.
It was to pay attention.
It was to stop crawling, and to walk, and
to run.
And when you emulate her today, when you turn
off the fire hose of input we use to drown
our own thoughts, when you simply move with
nothing in your ears but air, you are returning
step by step to what we were meant to do and
meant to be.
Go.
JUDY WOODRUFF: Advice to live by.
