"The Work of the World"

This is the second year I've joined Police Officers from Carrboro, UNC Campus, and Chapel Hill in carrying the "torch" from Orange County to Durham County, NC. 

North Carolina's Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics is now in its 33rd year, and more than $17 million have been raised for Special Olympics.

These torch runs are a unique experience bringing together men & women who put their lives on the line every day, and also symbolically unifies communities across the state, as the torch is passed & carried on.
For me, it's an opportunity to support the local police department I work for. And it's an honor to run with this fierce group of officers who have taught me what service is.
I work behind the scenes at a desk, supporting their work. I witness the human condition at its lowest from a distance; the officers witness it hands-on daily - they are asked to fix it, help it, mitigate it.
The torch run is a respite, a bit of hope in the common rhythm.

This past Wednesday morning just after 9am, with the temperature creeping up towards the 90's, we gathered, the flame was lit and raised - thus began our 7.1 miles run from the Carrboro Plaza Shopping Center on Hwy 54, through downtown Carrboro & Chapel Hill, up 15-501 and across I-40 to where I job would end with the passing of the pass torch to the Durham Police Department.

Flanked by NC State Troopers, and Police Cars, we ran in formation; some people waved from the sidewalk & curbs, others gaped, but we just kept running; we had a job to do.

***

I want to be with people who submerge

in the task, who go into the fields to harvest

and work in a row and pass the bags along,

who stand in the line and haul in their places,

who are not parlor generals and field deserters

but move in a common rhythm

when the food must come in or the fire be put out.

The work of the world is common as mud.

Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.

But the thing worth doing well done

has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.

Greek amphoras for wine or oil,

Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums

but you know they were made to be used.

The pitcher cries for water to carry

and a person for work that is real.

-Marge Piercy