Planter Fasciitis

Got a case of planter fasciitis on a six mile run, barefoot, on the beach at South Padre Island. It would start to get a little better and I’d push it, and of course, it would get worse again. Was planning on signing up for the McAllen Marathon, but let the registration deadline pass because I wasn’t sure the planter fasciitis would clear up in time. 

I cut my mileage in half, which helped, even though I’m discouraged about the time it’s going to take to ratchet it back up. 

I decided to get off the sidewalk, where the repetition of movement isn’t doing my heel any good. I’ve come to the conclusion that planter fasciitis is **** in the foot. It comes from repetition of the same movement. That repetitive movement is reinforced when running on a smooth concrete surface.

From now until the planter fasciitis is completely clear I’m going to run on the grass in the greenbelt along Second Street. Grass is softer than concrete, 17% softer according to an article in Runner’s World. More important than that, the surface is uneven, changing the range of motion in my leg with every stride. It will take a couple of days to see if this will work, or if I have to do that one thing that all runners dread, take a week off.

The First Scene of The Republic a Retelling of the Trial of Socrates?

The Republic opens with Socrates, accompanied by Glaucon returning from the port of Athens to the main city. He is overtaken by Polymarchus and his companions, who laughingly tells Socrates that they are many and stronger and that he must accompany them. Socrates asks if he could persuade Polymarchus and his companions to let him go. Polymarchus replies, "But can you persuade us, if we refuse to listen to you?"

Though this exchange is done in jest, the parallel with the trial of Socrates is unmistakable; though the vote as close, many chose not to listen to Socrates's "Apology."

Is it a coincidence that Polymarchus, like Socrates, was forced to drink hemlock? The dates work out (Republic written in about 380 BCE; Polymarchus's death about 405 BCE.) Plato's readers would have know the history, and the parallel.

Socrates goes with Polymarchus to his house and has a conversation with Polymarchus's father, Cephalus. The gist of the conversation is whether wealth is beneficial in old age. Cephalus tells Socrates that wealth is beneficial for a man who has lived a just life, but not for one who has not. I freely admit that I may be reading more into this than Plato intended. Nevertheless, I cannot shake the idea that this exchange is a statement on Athens, her wealth, and her lack of justice.

The final parallel is the discussion of justice between Socrates and Polymarchus on the nature of justice. Polymarchus, quoting Simonides, says that justice is the repayment of debt. Socrates, of course, will have none of that, slowly backing Polymarchus into a corner in which Polymarchus can no longer defend his own interpretation of Simonides, that repayment of debts means doing good to your friends and harm to your enemies. Eventually Socrates gets Polymarchus to admit that "the injuring of another can be in no case just."

Enter Thrasymachus, who angrily exclaims, "I say that justice is nothing other than the advantage of the stronger." This is certainly the "justice" of the trial of Socrates.