Running feels good. It also centers the runner in the world, solves the problems implied by the Cartesian split between body and soul, and establishes an active relationship between the self and others. Running takes the motion we are all born with (that is the essence of life) and with the individual providing the impetus, projects us into the world of others. When we run, we transcend ourselves and place ourselves in the world. is set in many places—Cairo, the Eastern Sierras, Las Vegas, New York's Adirondack Mountains, and Barcelona, among others—but always in the moving body of the runner hurtling both through and into the world. is both a hymn to human motion and an explanation of its sweetness.