The Runner and the Path: An Athlete's Quest for Meaning in Postmodern Corporate America

by Dean Ottati

Dean Ottati is an Everyman in this modern fast-paced trying to balance career, marriage, family, and personal happiness. He’s a young corporate executive who seeks real meaning in his life, beyond the hardball negotiations that make up his long workday. He feels that capitalism and competition have made us all poorer—slaves of the clock, pursuing the illusory and the empty. To find the substance of life, he runs. He runs on trails and roads and beaches, every day, alone or with friends, constantly challenging himself physically and intellectually. During these runs he re-evaluates his relationship to work, his use of time, his marriage, his bond with his young son. He peels back the layers of hardness from his heart. He finds a new balance in the forces of family, work, love, solitude, money, and time. His conversations with running "mystics, sages, and philosophers" each become a chapter. The run along the beach with the friend who counsels him on "Would you rather be right or would you rather be happy?" The glorious muddy run in the rain with Marc, who declares, "Each wet sock is a stinking foot soldier in the war against postmodernism!" The run with Big Jack, a senior executive of his company, who teaches him, "Before you speak, examine your intentions. If you can do that you’ll come to meet yourself, and it will transform you." The run with the friend who tells him "The famine of time in our lives is really a famine of meaning." And this leads to the philosopher who advises "that merely by pondering the question of meaning in our lives, we begin to find meaning." Dean Ottati’s quest take him on a fascinating path toward a common-sense, workable enlightenment. And he teaches us to find our own path. Dean Ottati lives in Walnut Creek, California.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2002

Reviews

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

One very interesting chapter about school and cheating. If you only read one chapter, read that one. It is chapter 7, Backpacking with Jared.

Okay and in some ways interesting. Life and things about it can be more important than work. Some interesting stories but it started to seem repetitive. I wasn't hurrying to read more. There are some interesting philosophical quotes. One read was enough, almost too much for me. Rating should be 3.5 but no half ratings.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today I finished reading “The Runner And The Path“, by Dean Ottati (2002). This is another of the $2 books I’ve picked up at Half-Price Books on the outside rack. I bought it on the strength of 1) it’s about running; 2) the author/runner lives locally (in Walnut Creek); and, 3) from the inside the cover notes the book came across as quasi-philosophical. The book is all three and more.

The author is an account manager (an “executive”) in a technology company. Feeling a bit out of shape, he takes up running as a hobby and discovers that over time, it shows him an entirely new side of himself which he never made time to observe before. The author learns (between running and talking with his running friends) to listen to his own heart. Not the the physical heart beating away in his chest, but the heart beating away in his soul.

The book is a mild indictment of corporate America, because the author ultimately decides (after his review,) that he doesn’t always want to be fighting on the corporate ladder and that there is more to life than “just” more – more money, more authority, more stuff. The author does admit he has been lucky and he’s fortunate enough to be in a position to back off of the rat race so his conclusions “ring” true, however, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of hope for the non-executives (regular workers) or those who can’t step off the ladder.

Other than those minor comments, I found the book to be very enjoyable – like talking with a new acquaintance whom you discover you have a lot in common with. The authors writing style, even when he lapses into philosophy, is conversational and therefore a quick read. And he does have a way with words, which means you’ll be seeing quotes from this book from time to time.

All in all, I recommend the book for those who have never really looked up from their “path” to see where it is actually taking them.

Finally, I must admit I kept waiting for a reference to Frost’s “The Road Not Taken“, but it never came. An opportunity missed by the author…

[Em Salam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Distance running is the activity of a life examined. This book explores that connection. Covers the running trails in my neighborhood and it's nice to see them described in the book.