My daughter Ida noticed that when I run I keep my fingers loose but my thumbs up. Ida has come running with me a couple of times in the last few weeks as I try to get my kids to move more without forcing them to do so.
Ida is twelve and already has a keen eye that annoys me the way only a ten year old can. Of late when we walk together she has been informing me that I am walking badly.
As soon as she says it I say, “No, I’m not” and make a quick correction.
“You just fixed it!”
D’oh!
Yesterday I noticed her catching me and corrected myself before she could say anything and her response was, “That’s so weird, you were just walking badly and I was about to say something but you changed.”
I chose not to tell her I saw her. Parenting is hard.
Back to running—it isn’t that she notices that I run with my thumbs up— it’s that she mocks me for it in a cheery tone that suggests there is something wrong with me.
After she pointed it out I let my thumbs drop, which should be more efficient in a way because it takes work to point them up, but they didn’t want to stay relaxed and down.
Running by myself a couple of days ago I played with the difference between thumbs up and thumbs relaxed the entire time and found that thumbs up created a ridiculously subtle opening in the upper chest towards the head of the arm bone.
Ridiculously subtle but one I’m not willing to give up.
Last night at dinner it was fun to talk about it and show it to Ida and my son Reggie. They thought they were able to tell the difference between thumbs up and thumbs down and how it might affect the upper chest but there is always a bit of leading the witness when it comes to feeling games.
Did I mention that parenting is hard?
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