ORDER, DISCIPLINE, SAFETY

PAUL SHIPPEY, BOULDER, COLORADO

AS A TRIATHLETE and lifelong competitor who has run his share of marathons, I'm all too familiar with the challenge of big sporting events such as the Boston Marathon (scheduled this year for April 18).

During my last springtime visit to Boston, it was hard for me to stand on the sidelines and not run the marathon that coincided with my brief stay. Yet, in a sense, I was a participant. I've found that, as a lens man, shooting a sports event provides a unique opportunity to step back from the cheering crowds and view the action from a different perspective.

While negotiating sidewalks jammed with hordes of excited spectators, I came across these iron steeds of the Boston Police Department. The symmetry of their parking, the bold front mudguards, all brought a feeling of order, discipline, and safety to an otherwise frenetic day of sporting triumph and despair. I felt reassured, calm—confident that the event would go well for everyone.

I've never run a long-distance race without spiritual conditioning to match my road-training miles. And it occurred to me that in the future I might pray not just for strength and endurance in competition but also for the "beauty, grandeur, order" of God's handiwork I once sang about in Sunday School (Christian Science Hymnal, No.329).

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April 18, 2005

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