Philosophy department, I suppose, is as good as any to describe this, but I’m thinking lately about you know, what to do. Let’s say I was very wealthy. What would I do? And I think it’s pretty obvious that, you know, most of it will be given away.

Nobody needs a hundred million dollars, or however much it is. So the question is: how, what to do, and where to channel those resources appropriately. Of course, I’ve got some personal things and some charities that are very personal to me. You don’t have to pedal uphill.

Just ride. Slow zone ahead. With a turtle on the sign. Wonder why that is. Anyway, if you want to do something good in the world, if you want to make a difference, there are many things you can do.

But I divide them into two basic categories, tactical and strategic. Tactical is, you know, in military terms, it’s on the battlefield. I mean, just right where the conflict is. And that’s where your sergeants and lieutenants, you know, privates and all the frontline troops are making decisions and taking actions, and those are tactical decisions.

Strategic, on the other hand, strategy is something that happens at a higher level. Howdy. You know, 10,000-foot view, if you will. And we’re talking about generals here, you know.

They’re concerned about strategy, not tactics. So, I’m thinking about the long term. Change. 3.30 on a Wednesday afternoon.

It’s getting pretty crowded out here. A strategic change of culture. How do you bring these things about? Now, tactical examples are feeding the poor, I mean literally collecting money or food and taking the food to people who are hungry and can’t afford to eat or can’t afford to eat enough.

Building wells for people without access to clean water. building shelters for victims of abuse, caring for orphans, and so forth. All of these are frontline activities. And they’re important.

I mean, without the front line, you don’t win the war. Absolutely do not. You know, crowded. I got some people walking basically right next to me, but they’re off in the woods.

On a different trail, I guess, a woodsy trail. And, you know, if you can’t see the lake well, you’ve got the beauty of a field. There you go. How are we doing here?

1.4. Getting closer to the hump, to the midpoint. Don’t think we’ll make it to the Botanical Gardens, even though we made it from the Botanical Gardens almost to the marina last time. Don’t think it’s going to happen today.

I don’t see a good miles-per-hour number. It’s fluctuating quite a lot. Anyway, what intrigues me personally much more is strategy. It’s at a much higher level.

It’s at the general level. But it impacts tactics. It flows down, so to speak. and shapes tactics because tactics are meant to support the strategic objectives.

I haven’t been near this intersection in a while. The Razorback Greenway goes left. Presumably, the Lake Fayetteville Trail continues off to the right. But I don’t know.

I really don’t know. Maybe that goes up to Springdale. I guess we could stop and look at the map. It’s going to slow me down, but I don’t care.

Yep. Big Fayetteville Natural Nature Trail loop. So yeah, I’m gonna go right. Otherwise, we go out for…

Actually… Anyway, I think we should go through the city, basically, if we go that way. It’d be worth trying one of these days. I don’t know.

I’d like to stay on the Lake Fayetteville Trail long enough. But I’m only going three and a half miles today, or actually over 1.75 miles of the trail, so another tenth of a mile before turning around, yeah, so it seems kind of deceiving. I think it reminds me of the Mount Nebo bench trail I thought was supposed to take four hours, and I ended up overlapping it. So, anyway, strategic.

We’ll never get back to this, will we? Always going on a tangent. One of the first things that kind of comes to mind is education. I don’t know, education is kind of in between.

You know, people who don’t have access to good schools, teachers, and learning materials. It’s kind of the immediate thing: getting people into school is tactical. The long-term impact probably depends more on not just education, but what education, how people are educated. And there’s a lot of debate and controversy on that, for sure.

I know that a radio station I listen to is a conservative Christian in nature. Definitely, and other people I’ve spoke to as well, definitely have the opinion that, especially higher education, especially our college education system, is really training people in… secular is a mild word for it. Secular sounds kind of neutral.

But, you know, what Christians would probably see as immoral. And definitely, I think academia tends to attract people of a very liberal persuasion. So to impact change in that realm, we’re gonna have to counteract that. So one way to do that is to encourage people of faith to enter the academic world and not just go to, you know, Notre Dame or…

Drawing a blank here. They’re really good at basketball. Howdy. Gonzaga, yeah. Anyway, Christian schools, basically.

Liberty University, I guess, is another one that’s not Catholic. You know, Oral Roberts, I suppose. I just can’t, I don’t know. a whole big list of them.

But don’t just go to places like that. Go to your state universities and try to counter this tendency toward ideas we disagree with. Another way to strategically shape culture is for people of faith to have more children and raise them in their own faith tradition. And this is, you can see, it’s a very long-term plan.

And you know, a lot of people who have been brought up with a great exposure to faith don’t stay with that faith. Although I think many of them do come back later in life. Certainly was the case in my life. So anyway, those are a couple of things.

encouraging, because a lot of Christian people don’t do these things. Government is another example, because we live in a society, or at least I do, where government has a great impact on that society. Definitely have seen that controversy in the last decade, for sure. Maybe two decades, maybe four, I don’t know.

But definitely since the early 90s, I would say. We’ve seen pretty vast differences between governments depending on who’s in power. So you’ve got to have people in government at all levels in order to enact positive change. So it’s encouraging Christian people or, you know, I mean, I don’t want to, I don’t say it’s only Christians.

I just say, you know, for me, that’s the case. You know, we’re talking about what I would do with my resources. And that’s what I would be looking at. Encourage people to enter the government and media.

Like this podcast. Not about religion, politics, or morality, even, although we touch on those subjects. This is about health, fitness, diet, and medicine. But it comes from my own perspective.

And that perspective is shaped by my faith. No matter what you’re talking about, that perspective will be a factor. And I’m way over. I’m almost two miles out.

Wow. I could be setting a new record here. By the time I got back, I just started talking and forgot where I was. Anyway, we didn’t get to the Botanical Gardens, but we got past, well past, the old stomping grounds.

And a beautiful day, Lake Fayetteville. Nice breeze. Probably still in the 70s. It feels kind of warm because I’ve been walking.

By the way, I’ve now exercised three times in a week. I was almost there last week. Now, Thursday, Monday, and then today. That makes three times.

So that’s kind of my intermediate goal. And I probably need to do something tomorrow, since the weekend looks unfavorable. And I don’t know, I don’t, I don’t go out in bad weather as much as I used to, you know. If I got into the habit of exercising more often, I might feel obligated to get my workout in even when the weather isn’t favorable.

I’ve even kind of shied away when it’s, you know, in the 90s. Although I’m sure I have, I think I’ve been out here when it’s that temperature. Sometime this year, I probably, definitely shied away on certain days that I think are too hot to go out, you know. So at two miles, my heart rate’s gone down to 91.

Last time we got over 100 at one point, I think. But it’s on a relatively tame incline here as I go up to the big hill. Anyway, those are my ideas for strategic use of excess resources. I don’t know the details of how to carry out those encouragements I mentioned.

It’s something I need to cogitate more on. Or become less of a moron on. Less is more, they say. It doesn’t make much sense, but in this sentence, nothing does.

Here are some bare trees. Speaking of bears, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it. There have been a couple of bear attacks. And there was also a homicide, a double homicide at Devil’s Den State Park.

So, I don’t know, maybe dangerous to hike anymore. If it’s dangerous to walk, it’s dangerous to hike. New adventures, people. New adventures and danger.

I may have to change my middle name to Danger. So, you know. I’d love to have your thoughts. Suppose you become suddenly very, very wealthy.

Where would those resources be best allocated? Maybe you’re already very, very wealthy, and you’re allocating those resources in a way you might want to share. I would love to hear what you guys have to say about that, regardless of your situation. So again, you can comment on YouTube or on the blog, runningfever.com.

Plenty of space for you to write your thoughts. Hope you’ve enjoyed this little collection of tangents and various subjects today. There’s nothing strategic about my planning for the episode, as usual. I am just out walking, and I am taking you with me on the trail.

So until next time, if you’ve got the fever, keep it burning. If you don’t, catch the fever. And I will see you next time on Running: A FEVER.