[exercise] when there's no alternative

Photo courtesy Mosnews

These are the sorts of people I'm obliged to spend a substantial portion of my waking hours with each day. Actually the ones I deal with are around four years older and there are usually fifteen or so and hundreds more on the stairs outside the room.

However, that is not the point of this post. The point is that there are hardly any obese or thunder-thighed girls in the FSU for the simple reason that they exercise naturally – walking to the bus, walking up and down stairs seven times a day, walking around shops for hours, dancing half the night and so on. I’ve asked many how difficult it is to stay so trim and they think nothing of it.

[langley] abandon hope, all ye who enter here

Hannah Arendt, writing in 1963 of Adolph Eichmann in Jerusalem, was moved to describe what she saw as:

The fearsome, word-and-thought-defying banality of evil.

This seemingly out of place word, ‘banality’, seems very much to be part and parcel of true evil. Leaving aside the films and books for one moment, it seems to me that this is what it’s all about. Nothingness.

Of course the CIA are anything but evil – they’re an altruistic, kindly lot of do-gooders, dedicated to peace on earth and yet – look at the photo and the textures and colour scheme they’ve adopted. These are the colours of cold efficiency, of clinical dispassion, of tiled rooms and the absence of style, the absence of any feeling whatsoever. What a cheerless foyer to a great public building. How dispiriting.

When we eventually see ‘abandon hope, all ye who enter here’, this is the sort of portal I have in mind.

[exercise] forget all the substitutes - make the move

Morning exercises – don’t you love the chap in the background, watching?

The peerless Bryan Appleyard has done it again. He’s come up with one hell of a topic:

I see calorie restriction is becoming fashionable. I looked into this phenomenon while researching my new book. The idea is that you restrict your calorie-intake to about 30 per cent of normal levels. Since the thirties, animal research has shown that this prolongs life.

No, no, no, no, no, no – that’s not the way to go. Quite the opposite. What is not mentioned once with the animal research is that in their natural habitat [as distinct from in a cage in a laboratory] they would exercise – naturally. Here’s the list for homo sapiens, in no particular order:

# Exercise
# Love - to and from
# Conversation
# Intellectual stimulation
# Eating a balanced diet heartily
# Sleeping big time
# Keeping in touch with your spirituality
# Relaxing with a diversion of some kind e.g. sex or a book

Forget the pills, forget the calorie restriction, forget all of that. Exercise! Go to the gym, as so many other boomers do and after the initial shock, if you stick at it, everything improves on the list above. Appetite, heartiness, optimism and so on all improve and there’s one huge bonus if you combine aerobic and anaerobic exercise, [i.e. heart routines and lifting weights], quite apart from the social interaction.

Exercise becomes a drug – hence all the gym rats who can’t do without their daily fix. It’s a narcotic and the buzz afterwards lasts a boomer a good hour and a half, during which time he’s in grave danger from the female of the species. He’s … er … desirable again. Plus … and this is the biggy … he feels so proud of himself and the buzz rubs off on those around him.

If you’ve done none for years, if you think you’d look ludicrous – seriously, no one’s going to think that. They’re going to admire your spirit. Aside from watching the heart carefully, [and there are so many ways to monitor that], there is no known downside to exercise. You just have to make that massive move to get up off the posterior and start it.

[canada] election on the cards

It’s all action over at Stephen Harper’s ice palace:

Mr. Dion faces the possibility that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will try to engineer a quick election before he, Dion, can properly unite his party and organize for a vote. Across Canada, 26 per cent said they would be less likely to vote Liberal now that Mr. Dion is leader, and 20 per cent said they would be more likely; 47 per cent said their vote would be unaffected.

Mr. Dion moved immediately yesterday to prepare for a possible election when he announced the formation of his transition team. "I am a quick learner," he told reporters in his first press conference as leader. "We don't have a lot of time, as you know. We may be in an election at any time."

C’mon Stephen, c’mon. Sorry, sorry – mustn’t show any bias, must I?

[catastrophe] now what time does the film start

Nourishing lunch

What does the following news do to you on a Monday morning whilst you’re briskly getting ready for work?

The Red Cross has sent out an urgent plea for water, food and medicine today as Philippine officials said more than 1000 people were dead or missing after mudslides swallowed up whole villages. The Government's National Disaster Coordinating Centre confirmed 425 dead from the mudslides around Mayon volcano trigged by super typhoon Durian rains. It listed a further 599 people as missing in the same eastern region of Bicol.

I asked a lady about this once while we were finishing lunch, prior to going to a matinee – not this particular disaster, of course, another one – and she replied, ‘Yes, shocking, isn’t it? One more tea before we go?’

To which I replied something along the lines of, ‘That’s 1000 people dead, you know. 1000.’

‘Yes, it’s terrible the things which happen in the world,’ and by now she was looking at me strangely. ‘James, when’s the film start?’

‘It's easy to see them as statistics, rather than as people, isn't it?’ I mused.

‘Who?’

‘The 1000 who died.’

Slightly exasperated, she muttered, ‘Well why don’t you go and help them, if you feel that way. Look, they’re there and we’re here. I feel terrible but what can we do? Is there some Bandaid concert or something? How much do they need?’

‘12:30.’

‘Pardon?’

‘12:30. The film starts at 12:30, so we’ve forty five minutes. We’d best get a move on.’

[She did later contribute a sizable donation, to be fair and followed the story in the papers until the papers lost interest.]

[in brief] thought for the day

You can't cheat an honest man. He has to have larceny in his heart in the first place.