Tales from the City

 It's amazing what you encounter when out running. As the miles float by you find yourself intruding in snippets of other people's lives. Stuck behind a gossiping couple of joggers you learn all about their domestic quirks and how "he doesn't do anything in the house". The teenage girls bemoaning their lack of, or indeed surplus of, new boyfriends and the two midle-aged blokes chatting about a recent football match.

My usual pace and solo runs mean I rarely partake in such banter, although my occasional runs with clubmates provide a nice level of gossip and chatter. I admit I'm not much of a talker, when running or otherwise, but am always glad of the company.


A recent event on the run is worthy of a blog entry as it revealed the world as a slightly nicer place.


It occured running along the streets of south Liverpool. I was bouncing along merrily and two lads, I guessed must have been about 13 or 14, walked passed in the opposite direction. Now of course this isn't noteworthy in any way, except for one small detail. They were holding hands. 

I almost wanted to stop, applaud, whoop and cheer. Of course I didn't, I probably would have ended up on some sort of register. But how far have we come as a society that these two lads are able to make this simplest of gestures, that means so much to so many. I've learnt from Scouting that the views of today's young are vastly different even from 'my generation'. I was a (kind of closeted although fooling no-one) Sixth-Former when the Queer As Folk appeared on TV. I remember watching it agog, it felt like another world, but one I was to come to know quite well. At School suddenly everyone was talkin about issues that had never been discussed before and it was ok to be gay. It took me another year to properly come out and then probably not until I was 20 or 21 to fully accept who I was and what I desired.


Coming Out is an interesting concept, becuase its not something you do once to get it over with. You find you keep having to do it. At work, in your pastimes, sometimes with family. That closet door is actually a revolving one where you appear briefly with jazz hands before disappearing to go round again.


Of course, I'd much rather that than living in that dark scary place of fear that comes with not being either willing or able to be truthful to those around you.

I hope those lads are happy together and that their path in life is full of love and the feeling that I had for the rest of that run. 

Pride.