Grounds for survival

Off to the gym soon. Amazing, for a former intellectual, this almost daily trip to the house of heavy objects, cables, etc. has become the mainstay of my sanity over the last eight years. I could not say that life for me in the last while has been very satisfying, overall. There are seasons of waxing and seasons of waning; the last several months especially have been ones I will largely not miss. But at least there is this simple, grounding, distracting and relieving ritual of an hour or two.

Jung holds that the second half of life will be dedicated to the parts of the soul that were, of necessity, neglected during the first half. My friend Bill and I laugh about this. He was a youthful bodybuilder, obsessively so, and a man passionately given to causes. Now approaching 65, it is still clear that he has spent a lot of time on his musculature. The man has a six pack! But what he really loves is books and reading and being left alone with his dog. And here I am, with five college degrees, just a few years behind him, and what really gets me going is a certain kind of interpersonal passion and the physicality of the gym or a hike. I really would rather work out than read a book.

 Not me, by the way!

And although my work life is far less than optimal and my love life is, to put it kindly, in aftermath mode, hey, at least I look pretty good!