Congrats to Woodlands Endurance Team member Yu Kuwabara for his 2nd place finish at the Ashland mountain challenge in the expert category. @snowymonk
Midway through the intensive emoji selection process for Monday's Weekend Wrap-up on the Woodlands Instagram, the now infamous 2021 social media bleep out took place. For 6 perilous hours Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp crashed for mysterious reasons, leaving us to ponder life's big questions like, what am I going to do when I'm pooping? Just sit there?! Do we have any magazines in the house? "Evan, where are the magazines?" It was chaos.
Speaking of nature calling, it's in my nature to existential-ize the holy hell out of unexpected situations like this. While much of the world moved to Twitter to pontificate on what happened or tweet A+ memes, I was caught up in wondering how the world would change, my world and The World, if these 3 apps just never came back online. Like so many others, the last few years between elections and the 'demic, we're examining our own urges to fill every quiet moment with a reach for the phone. The flow of information never dries up - constant drips of BREAKING NEWS! and ACT NOW! Our fragile lizard brains that evolved to juke move danger are all juked out. Add to that the unspoken expectations we put on ourselves to have an opinion on said news; to package up those opinions and all the other micro-moments of our lives to give away freely. What does this picture of my cinnamon roll say about me? Will people think I'm a bad person if I don't weigh in on this social issue? If I don't post a picture of the sunlit tree fallen in the woods, did it even fall?
Turns out we did have a magazine, the October issue of National Geographic with an article about female beekeepers and how three out of four leading food crops depend in part on pollinators. That sparked curiosity about the pollinators we have in our garden and how we could create a more hospitable environment for them - a real 'do my part' moment that may have not otherwise happened without these hours where the routine of social posting was interrupted.
This interruption gave us time to talk about the upcoming Woodlands race, the Twin Peaks Trail Runs - of ways to make it an A+ experience for runners and creative ways to thank volunteers. After all, at the heart of running, of Woodlands and Women of Woodlands, is the message of human connection and community, not brand design and flashy content. Connection in the way of consistent weekly runs, giving back to the trails we love with trail work and to the community with volunteering at events and partnering with as many local businesses who are also giving back. Dang, aren't we all lucky to have found each other and not just as Facebook friends or IG follows?
We have two runs this week which are two opportunities to share your best 'pooping in the woods' stories with friends old and new. We'll bring a few magazines just in case.