Dec 12 2001
The boredom of exercise
Whoever invented Walkmans (Walkmen?) is a genius. It’s like having a soundtrack to your life. And it does make walking to work alone less boring. Today it was Lou Reed, both in his Velvets incarnation and later, keeping me company.
I always have to be distracted from the boredom of exercise, and I don’t think I’m the only one. Gyms are full of people listening to music, watching TV, and reading books to keep their minds off the dreariness/pain/horror of their hamster in a cage activity.
I think I have finally figured out why I hate exercise so much. Partly it’s because my body was issued without the endorphins package (if only my parents had gone for the deluxe model!), so I never get that “high” that people say they get from it. If I feel good after exercising, it’s because it’s over and I don’t have to do it anymore..that day.
And there’s the rub. It’s never over. You might be done for today and can feel virtuous about it, but tomorrow, as Scarlett O’Hara observed, is another day, and with it the requirement of exercising yet again. I don’t like things that are vague or infinite. I definitely like things that are, well, definite and can be completed, checked off the list, over and done with. Knowing it’s looming on the horizon, day after day ad infinitum, ad nauseam, is very depressing. It’s just so Sisyphus, and remember, that was a torture of the damned.
They say to find something you like doing, but there really isn’t anything I like doing. I hate that hamster in a cage gym thing, and anything that requires changing out of my clothes and then getting back into them later. Getting dressed once a day is more than enough for me.
I also absolutely despise sweating, for which there is only one good reason, and it ain’t working out.
So the best I can do is walk to work, up and down the hills, for almost two miles. I’d rather walk than deal with Muni anyway. Some days I walk home, too. I mean to every day, but sometimes I’m late, or have errands to run, or just plain don’t feel like it. But then, tomorrow is another day.