for my most rebellious post-doctoral student. | would tell my teen-age son that he must wait another year for his own car. | felt generally intolerant. In an article in Runners World, | labeled my run’s first global brain state transition, the first second wind. |t energized me with the cool firmness but ready-to- be angry righteousness of modern religious orthodoxy: Orthodox Jews gunning down Hamas terrorists as retribution for bus bombing children which was itself a retribution; Muslim suicide bombing as vengeance for cultural contamination; Catholic Bishops refusing the Eucharist to pro-choice politicians; Charismatic Christians gay bashing defense of the sanctity of marriage; Mohammed’s early Sufi- like poetry of love turning into territorial aggression and Jew killing in his later years. Once in while, unpredictably, past the first hour of running and after the first second wind, a fatigue easing second burst of energy followed the second stage of exhaustion. | called this running-induced, second global brain state transition to a softer loving energy, the second second wind. Colors became intense, clouds breathed and my body lightened. Running once again became easy. | was flooded with empathic and generous thoughts. | understood that the Dean was faced with too many space demands to satisfy; the grant reviewers’ criticisms of the budget were meant to be constructive. | recalled that strong minded, rebellious post- doctoral students often made the most creative contributions to science. | realized that my son’s urgent desire for his own car was a proposal in the direction of the independence that would be required of him the following year when he was going to be hundreds of miles away at a university. Filled with benign optimism, | felt the compassionate perspective afforded those with energy but without envy, anger or fear. William James, in Varieties of Religious Experience, A.C. Underwood’s book, Conversion, Christian and Non-Christian and Gobi Krishna’s