Would You Rather?

I completely expected to get wet this morning when I drove up to Founders Park for my Monday morning run.  I wore my hat and brought an extra dry shirt with me, and I summoned up all my resolve.  So what a surprise it was to find less and less rain on my windshield as I climbed to the plateau, and none at all when I arrived.  Steve was the only runner waiting, and he accompanied me to the base of Big Bearpen before continuing his own 10-K-pace workout (his 10-K time is faster than mine has ever been).  I climbed slowly, savoring my surroundings; the fog was becoming brighter and brighter, as if the blue sky was just a little bit above me, but that is all I saw at every one of the vistas as I circled the summit:  bright fog, in an expanse stretching out to infinity on my right, and the road curving away ghostly beautiful ahead of me.

This will be the last time I climb this mountain for awhile because we will be leaving in a few days for Atlantic Beach NC, where we enjoyed some warmer temperatures and good running last January.  Martha's aunt has a place there and she has been very gracious in allowing us to escape again.  So I descended slowly, feeling the good cushioning in my brand-new pair of shoes (straight out of the box!  I love New Balance) and the rain-softened road, and then I circled around Lower Lake Road and Gibson Street, pulling all of the hills as hard as I could.  I completed seven miles in all, and when I was crossing the street to my car, I spied this little card in the middle of the road.

Intrigued, I pried it up from the wet road and found these difficult questions on the reverse side:

A visit to Google when I returned home informed me that this is a playing card from an African-sounding board game called Zobmondo, which I have never heard of. 

Such difficult choices!  But why do we always have to choose?  Can we not have both?  Can we not climb bright-foggy mountains, and run on the beach alongside thundering surf and laughing gulls?  There are so many possibilities!  Still thinking about oceans and mountains on the drive back home, I found that the fog had lifted and settled into Clear Creek valley - an ocean of tranquility spread out before me.