A Few Thoughts On The Tragedy In Boston

A few thoughts on the tragedy in Boston:

This one hit home with me because I'm a runner. I've never done a marathon, but I've done the Columbus (Ohio) half-marathon and a few 5- and 10ks. When a race starts, I always get a surge of energy from being surrounded by people - a "wall of humanity."

The morning after the Boston Marathon bombing, instead of doing my usual indoor cardio workout, I felt like getting out and breathing fresh air. So I went for a run on a route near my house that I've been doing for years. It felt like a tribute run, of sorts, for the people affected by the events in Boston.

Whoever is responsible for this tragedy, domestic or international,  obviously wants to disrupt our way of life. So it seems to me that one of the best things we can do is continue going about our daily routines.

And I can think of no better way to start the day than with a run.

 

My Funny, Awkward Moment With Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Junot Diaz

I had a funny, awkward moment with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Junot Diaz when he came to speak at OSU on March 19.

Diaz appeared as part of Ohio State’s President and Provost's Diversity Lecture Series. As a Dominican-American who writes stories in which characters of all different races interact, he certainly fit the bill.

As a fellow writer, I enjoyed hearing Diaz speaking about his writing process and reading passages from his latest book, an engaging short-story collection titled This Is How You Lose Her.

I was fortunate enough to be able to do a phone interview with Diaz for the Call and Post newspaper before he spoke at Ohio State. Since winning the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his debut novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Diaz has been a very busy man and I was pleasantly surprised that he made himself available for an interview.

When I emailed Diaz through his website, I was amazed that he replied almost immediately and said he could do the interview. He quite generously offered to do the interview upon returning from a trip abroad to Japan and a full day of teaching English lit at MIT in Boston, so we spoke at 11 o’clock one night. I was a bit groggy and had a little trouble formulating my questions, but he answered each question thoroughly and intelligently.

I went up and introduced myself to Diaz when he got done speaking at the event at OSU's Student Union, but because the line was so long, I didn’t get to converse with him.

The funny, awkward moment happened like this: I noticed that Diaz and I were wearing the exact same black peacoat and tried to joke about it by telling him, “Nice jacket.” He was so distracted, signing books for the dozens of people waiting, that he didn’t notice we were dressed alike and didn’t pick up on the joke. Oh, well…

Meeting a Pulitzer Prize winner was an enjoyable experience nonetheless.