Another morning trying to catch up to the rhythm of the days, after being set back an hour. An extra cup of coffee doesn’t make up for the lag – my body still wanting to sleep. It feels like trying to rouse myself for a ridiculously early flight – every morning.

There’s something “off” that a run can’t fix.

I move from warrior one to warrior two and my shoulders scream. This pain that seems to come and go without a clear cause. I’ve resorted to a bed of nails. Or at least the contemporary plastic version.

I sleep into the pain and wake softer. I know there are a lot of physiological explanations for the practice, but I believe there is a healing aspect in the act of surrender alone.

This morning I was listening to a podcast article about birdbrains. About the human cerebral cortex. And I wondered at what point the human brain evolved to make life more difficult than it need be.

Obviously there are/were aspects of life where our survival required a competition for resources. And aspects that require cooperation. We are greedy creatures, to our own detriment. History has shown that. Two siblings fighting over the size of a cookie show us that.

I have no desire to be a sociologist. Or play one. People are inscrutable. And we are all fiction writers from single perspectives.

“Nice guys finish last”. Okay, then. Who finishes “first”? And what are they getting to first, exactly?