Introduction to Part I – Physical
This is a back-to-the-future blog . . .
Why?
Back to the Future is probably my favorite movie, because of the music and the setting that reminds me of my growing up in a small town, not to mention the movie theater with the big clock, teenage love, and of course did I already mention that the opening scene in Back to the Future with the giant speakers is classic. The movie is full of many memorable scenes. Is it 1985 yet?
“I was gonna tell a time-traveling joke, but you guys didn’t like it.” (Thanks to Reader’s Digest April 2019 issue for that joke). Go ahead and laugh out loud.
Huey Lewis and the News: The Power of Love
What’s the Point?
You may ask, what’s with the main heading and how does it relate to time travel? Well, maybe it does or doesn’t relate to time travel, but the heading came to me in the LA Fitness swimming pool last Friday. Actually, I do some of my best thinking in the swimming pool while I’m swimming – I mentally run races that I’ll be doing, I pray for people on my prayer list, I think about a lot of things, or sometimes I just free-associate and think of nothing. For me, swimming is very therapeutic, relaxing, and energizing all at the same time. I swim every time I do a gym workout, usually at the end of my workout before I get into the Jacuzzi.
By the way, this is part I in my Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual blog series.
Am I Physical?
Just a brief back-story about me as a segue to this blog installment.
I’m a person who gives physical fitness a high priority in his life – I swim, I work out, I run, I do physical therapy (that goes along with getting older). Anyway, back to the pool for a bit. Besides my meditative lap swimming, I also do something called aqua fit at my gym. Kind of self-explanatory, but it’s basically very low impact exercise in a pool. We move around and splash a lot as you can imagine. As for the demographics of our group, let’s just say the U.S.S. Aqua Fit sailed a long time ago for most of us. But we have a blast in the water, sometimes we even sing, and our instructor often tells jokes.
Although we meet three times a week for an hour in each session, our fearless and very energetic leader has the uncanny ability to introduce new routines in our workouts. Here’s an example – you lift both arms and lean left then right. Then, she says, to make it more interesting (remember, we’re doing this in a swimming pool), lift up your legs as you’re doing the arm movements. Bottom line, it involves some coordination (not that I’m coordinated). I’ve found that it’s better not to overthink it, just go with the flow for the 60-minute session.
As I mentioned I was thinking about my “heading” last week during an aqua fit session, as I splashed around in the water and looked at the people on the second level of the gym above the pool, exercising on elliptical bikes and tread mills – my thought was that life is either “physical” or “mental” or “emotional” or “spiritual”. Just an errant thought that popped into my head, kind of like when I’m swimming laps, my mind is literally free-floating and relaxed. OK, be patient, I’m coming to an important point in all this rambling text.
Perhaps the people (mostly younger-types) on the second level are not driven as much by “self-preservation” as my endearing friends (older-types) in the pool, but I think we all want to stay active and increase our life span as much as possible. I sometimes tell people that I was inspired by my dad to stay fit. He was four years younger than I am now when he died. God bless you, dad.
I went to my 50-year high school reunion a few years ago and was shocked at how many of my high school friends were gone. Overly-rich Texas diet, smoking, no exercise, or whatever, they had passed on.
I haven’t done a lot of research on the subject, but judging by all the commercials on TV for pharmaceuticals that might lower your cholesterol or fix other problems and just observing people in the the general public, I don’t think good health is a priority. I think statistics will bear me out about how healthy the general public is (at least in America).
Why is that – why do some choose to stay healthy and others do not? By the way (just a side note), I love comfort foods, especially fried chicken, but, you know what, I try to compensate for that weakness.
Parting Shots: Quotes, and a Few Links
I would be amiss if I didn’t include at least one Imprimis link and a good quote or two, so here they are.
Quote from the movie, “A Dark Truth”, spoken by Andy Garcia at the very end of the movie during the credits:
“Beyond the ideas of wrong-doings and right-doings there is a field, I’ll meet you there.”
OK, the movie didn’t get very good reviews, but it had some good actors in it, including Forest Whitaker and Eva Longoria, and I enjoyed it.
The quote from A Dark Truth made me think of an Imprimis speech by Amy L. Wax (published in January 2018). about how we often are so self-focused (bigoted?) that we will not even consider other people’s views on important issues or admit that maybe our own opinions might be mistaken.
I hate to take material out of context just to make a point, but feel free to read all of Amy Wax’s article. She hits home on some very important issues in our 21st century society. Admittedly I don’t always completely read my Imprimis issues that I receive (paper copy). However, you might want to at least look at this piece from front to back and think about what she said in her speech. At least, scroll forward to paragraphs 9, 10, and 11, then read the last three paragraphs, including this very last paragraph:
“The American way is to conduct free and open debate in a civil manner. We should return to doing that on our college campuses and in our society at large.”
Quote from Daily Word, March/April 2019, April 30:
“If I find myself being judgmental, I stop and instead communicate with kindness and compassion. I demonstrate peace in my own life and interaction with others. When I choose piece, I make a positive impact on the world.”
Links for other Imprimis issues that I found interesting:
The Problem of Identity Politics and Its Solution
Next installment in this series will be “Mental”. Keep your fingers crossed, I’m anticipating that blog to be a bit challenging (OK, stop snickering, that’s not what I meant).
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