Last night we attended a liberating event right in my hometown of Batavia. To its eternal credit, our little city has a quirky artistic side that is willing to try all kinds of new things. There is a great organization called Water Street Studios that took over a warehouse and turned it into an artist’s colony, with great success.

And while art is important, it’s not everything. Some citizens including Lane Allen, an architect in our town with a longtime commitment to art, thought it would be a good idea to host a Pecha Kucha night in Batavia.

The format is wonderful. People sign up to share one of their life’s passions with 20 images during a 6:40 talk. Which is the perfect length somehow to convey something important or interesting in life.

I can’t sufficiently encapsulate the brilliance and insight from the talks we heard. Lane related the relationship between origami and folded plate architecture. Another man talked about his experience with adoption.

Each talk was so interesting and the diversity of not really knowing what comes next was fabulous. In some ways, it was the opposite of the Internet. You had no choice but to listen and watch as each version of truth unfolded.

It made me happy. I felt real, and alive listening to each person speak. It was a peak experience in community and social networking as well. Friends and acquaintances were there.

So if the phrase PechaKucha comes up in your experience, or you want to host one of these in your town, go for it. I know it seems to having nothing to do with the general topic of this blog. But truly, it does.

All of us need diversity in our experience. If we don’t get it, even the things we love can become arduous or mundane. That can happen to your running, riding and swimming. It’s especially true at the end of a long summer season.

Don’t forget to stimulate your mind beyond your love of sports. That’s the simple message here.