Friday, October 8, 2010

29: Doubts

My cold feels like it's maturing and I'm hoping it (and my ear ache from flying) reach a timely death by tomorrow morning so that when I run the Staten Island Half Marathon on Sunday, I'm feeling strong. I need a good race to reinstate my confidence. The Disney half left me with doubts.

"Doubt" is a funny word. I've been thinking a lot about it this week because of a quirk in the way Mexicans use it in place of the word "question." So, if they want to say, "Let me know if you have questions," instead they say, "Let me know if you have any doubts." It must be taught that way in some national English text book because I've never met a native Mexican speaker who didn't make the mistake.

Anyway, this has got me thinking about the interchangeability of the words doubt and question. If I take my feelings of doubt and re-label them "questioning," a lightness creeps in. My fate isn't sealed. Every day is an opportunity to learn about how I'm going to complete this task... and my doubts, or my questions, are part of the path to the answer. Maybe the Mexicans aren't so much wrong as they are emotionally sensitive.

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