I woke up this morning and the sun wouldn’t shine. I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine. I loaded sixteen tons of Number 9 coal, and the strawboss said, “This is a Bible school. We don’t even use coal. Have you ever considered more productive uses for your time?”
OK, OK. It wasn’t sixteen tons. But I did work today (my annual orientation talk to the incoming students), while the rest of you were enjoying your bourgeois, degenerate cookouts and picnics. I don’t mind. I’m glad to do it.
Because it makes me better than you.
And when you get down to it, isn’t that what we’re all working for, really?
I did a little web searching about my new exercise regimen, “Walking with weights.” I found that fitness experts are almost unanimous in their opinion that it’s a very, very bad idea. High risk of injury. Likely to cause dangerous high blood pressure levels.
Just what I’d expect. I finally find a discipline that really makes me feel good, and it turns out to be a dangerous drug.
Too late now, though. I’m hooked.
What is it with our Bible School, that they don’t respect Labor Day? Have they invented some new commandment that says “Thou shalt not observe secular holidays?”
It’s probably that Labor Day isn’t about work, it’s about trade unions (a.k.a. organized labor).
I don’t know the reason. I suspect the kids tend to show up over the long weekend anyway, and the idea is to get them busy rather than let them get into trouble. But I don’t know.
Walking with weights is bad for you? That’s interesting considering it’s what our ancestors (those that were farmers, anyway) used to do for a living.
Ehren, have you looked at the average lifespan of our farming ancestors? It sucked.
Besides, they’ve been hunter/gatherers for a lot longer. Arguably chasing dangerous animals would be better for Lars’ health. His heart might be gored by a large boar, but it would be a healthy heart that gets gored.
Ori, that’s an interesting point. But I’d be interested to see evidence that the short lifespans were caused by manual labor, and not poor nutrition, injury, and the lack of modern medicine.
I’m just going on a hunch here, but it strikes me that people today have to do a lot of artificial manual labor (i.e. exercise) to feel fit and healthy. Maybe the exercise our ancestors used to get as part of their daily lives wasn’t the problem.
What I do when I walk reminds me, more than anything, of rowing. You do use your legs while rowing–pushing against the deck beneath you.
I’m not entirely sure whether what the experts are talking about is exactly the same as what I do. I don’t swing the weights, I pump them as in a gym.
But the blood pressure thing is probably a genuine concern. I suppose I could stroke out.
Exercise is obviously needed. The only question is what kinds of exercise are beneficial. I suspect hat hunting style exercise is more beneficial than farming style exercise. But I could be wrong.
In my rural community, I know dozens of 80 and 90 year old farmer types who can work circles around my flabby 49 year old frame. They didn’t have rural electricity here till the mid 50’s. I wonder why anybody put up the the rigors of life that were considered normal around here.
My observation is that the Great Depression either made the man or broke the man. Maybe Nietzsche was right when he said that “Whatever doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger.”