It Could Be Either

Most years since we’ve lived in Brooklyn, my partner and I have ventured out on a cold late Fall morning to take part in the familiar Gotham ritual of cheering on the runners in the New York City Marathon.

It’s always a good crowd and a great scene. People turning out to cheer on perfect strangers who are doing something hard. Really hard. The kind of hard that takes training and focus and heroically sustained effort.

One of the first years we did this, I remember spotting a runner charging by in a full-on banana costume. The bright yellow foam body, the crude oval cutout for the face, the black itchy-looking leggings, white Mickey Mouse gloves, everything. An oh man you must be dying in that thing kind of costume. (Disclaimer: This was early in the runners-running-in-novelty-costumes trend. We’ve seen this enough since that the folks who run the event have set up, like, rules for this, man. Consider this guy a trailblazer.)

I turned to my wife and asked: “Do you think he lost a bet, or is he winning one right now?”

Without skipping a beat, she replied, “It could be either.”

I still want to know which.

As we close the book on the thing that was 2025 and look ahead to 2026, I think about that moment a lot. Will this new year continue the downswing of the pendulum towards utter lawlessness and corruption, or will it be the turn towards a place where we reclaim ourselves?

It could be either.

Will we know in the moment? Probably not.

Best to keep running. See you at the finish line.