The longer I participate in trail running, the more scars I possess. I have matching ankle scars from running in high-cut boots — boots intended for hiking. I grew impatient on a hike one day and started running in these boots, effacing patches of skin on both ankles. I have dog-bite scars from a mid-run attack that resulted in rabies shots and stitches when I lived in Kentucky. And I have new shin scars from sliding across the pavement last month, when I switched directions too quickly on soggy leaves. They have joined my scar collection — a map of my missteps and imprudent choices.
I also have knee scars from a wipeout on the Sheltowee Trace. I hobbled off the trail whimpering, with a view of my kneecap. Memorably, I found myself in the emergency room, where my doctor was the mother of one of my Ethics students that term. While she stitched me up, she asked me to explain Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative so she could help her daughter with that night’s reading assignment. I still shudder (and think about Kant) when I notice these scars.
These are trivial injuries, skin-deep, and resulting from leisure. They have minimal impact on how I move through the world and proceed with my training. But many scars — athletic, familial, social, or otherwise — are not like this. Many scars are deep and more acutely felt. They require resilience to move forward, rather than just stitches, band-aids, and Kant.
Sabrina Little after badly cutting her knee open while trail running on the Sheltowee Trace in 2018. All photos courtesy of Sabrina Little.
The Concept
Resilience is the virtue of recovery. Rather than a singular trait or skill, resilience is an emergent property (1). It “supervenes upon various combinations of internal and external factors (2).”
Internal factors can include other virtues, such as perseverance, tenacity, and patience — factors which are “deliberately cultivated (3).” External factors can include situational features, like injuries or difficulties that occasion the need for resilience, as well as resources such as training or community members that help one to cope (4). Resilience is emergent — a property that depends upon, and arises from — these factors, such that its possessor can adequately deal with setbacks (5).
Resilience is a virtue we never really want the occasion to develop because requiring it means things have gone wrong. (I personally wish things would just go well in the first place.) Nevertheless, resilience is an asset in athletics, and it is valuable in life beyond sports, since life is full of difficulties.
So, if we want to become more resilient, what do we need to know?
Resilience Is Active, Not Passive
Philosopher Nancy Snow describes a resilient person as “maintain[ing] effective agency in the face of fluctuations in evidence (6).” They choose and act in light of the possibility of renewal, even when they detect little progress (7). For example, an injured runner performs physical therapy exercises and stretches, even when the prospect of recovery seems far off.
Being passive in the face of injury can result in prolonged time away from the sport. Or it can result in repeat injury soon after, since the weaknesses that resulted in the injury persist. So, the resilient athlete is one who is diligent in recovery, making changes. She aims to return, not as the same athlete, but as one who has confronted her frailties and grown.
This is a good reminder for runners — to recover with diligence and intention. It is also a good reminder for setbacks of other kinds, sports aside. We should act in light of the possibility of renewal, not expecting things to change for the better without our participation in that process.
Fall in Virginia, on one of the author’s home training routes.
Resilience Is Facilitated by Community
When I lived in Texas, I had the best running buddy. We met for training runs nearly every morning for years. Some days, I felt bad. Some days, she felt bad. But, early on, we realized that it was rare that we both felt bad at the same time. To overcome difficult miles, we learned to rely on whoever felt strongest that day.
Earlier, I wrote that resilience depends on both internal and external factors. One important external factor is community. Having good friends — running buddies or otherwise — to lean on when you feel down is a great way to keep moving forward. It is already tough enough to keep moving forward when you feel down. Try not to add loneliness to your difficulty.
Recovery May Not Mean Returning Stronger
A student in my class this morning was wearing a shirt that read “the comeback is always stronger than the setback.” Surely, this is false. It is a hopeful theme. I wish it were true that our scars and obstacles always had happy endings. The reality is, this probably only happens sometimes (8).
Growing up, my mom had a porcelain bell collection. As a kid, I once wiped out a portion of those bells with my basketball. We tried to glue them together, but our best hope was to restore the bells to a compromised form. Thereafter, each bell had visible scars, courtesy of my poor ball-handling skills.
Thankfully, people are not bells. In many cases, the process of repair can lead to growth and increased strength. But sometimes being broken results in staying broken, at least in the relevant respect. For example, sometimes injuries never fully heal. Sometimes fractured relationships never completely recover. In such cases, it helps to have a broad vision of what recovery might mean. What are we placing our hopes in? Do these hopes include the possibility of walking through the world in a different way than we walked before?
For instance, if we cannot imagine life without running and we lose that ability, we may despair. Being resilient sometimes means adjusting to new modes and orders, being firmly rooted in hopes that are less fragile than our bodies.
Final Thoughts
Originally, I intended to write on a lighter topic this month. But life is hard. Many friends are in ruts of various sorts — athletic, academic, social, or political — so I wrote about resilience instead.
Resilience helps us navigate adversity so we can move productively forward — from setbacks, adversities, and scars of various sorts (9). But “productively forward” does not always mean moving through the world the same way we once did.
Resilience, in part, depends on the company you keep — how well they encourage you. It depends on the actions you take toward recovery, and it depends on having broad and deeply rooted hopes so you can keep moving forward, in some way or another.
Call for Comments
- Have you had to show resilience in the face of adversity in your running or life?
- Do you think you could apply the the advice given in this article to your own life?
Notes/References
- Faulkner, L., Brown, K., and Quinn, T. 2018. Analyzing community resilience as an emergent property of dynamic social-ecological systems. “Ecology and Society” 23(1): 24.
- Snow, N.E. Resilience and Hope as a Democratic Civic Virtue. In “Virtues in the Public Square,” edited by James Arthur, 124-139. Oxford University Press, 126.
- Snow, N.E. p. 126.
- Little, S. 2024. Training Civic Virtues in Sports: Resilience and Hope. “Journal of Philosophy of Education.” Forthcoming.
- Snow, N.E. pp. 125-127.
- Snow, N.E. Resilience and Hope as a Democratic Civic Virtue, in “Virtues in the Public Square: Citizenship, Civic Friendship, and Duty,” ed. James Arthur, pp. 124–139 (London: Routledge Press, 2019).
- [Redacted pp. 119-120].
- See E. Jayawickreme & F.J. Infurna. 2021. Toward a More Credible Understanding of Post-Traumatic Growth. J Pers. 89(1):5-8. See also the other articles in this special issue.
- Maynes, N. and Kmiec, J. 2016. Resilience, hope, and concrete plans of action for schools and caring communities. The Journal of Educational Thought 49(1): 71-88, 73.
