Worship the Human Body?

JESSICA GROSE

The Church of Group Fitness

For some formerly religious people, exercising together creates connection and community. By JESSICA GROSE  July 26, 2023

Find fellowship in pickleballing? Hm. Something bigger seems to be missing in these athletic-cum-spiritual pursuits as the baby boomers find they might just need some community spirit in their little* lives after all...

----------

* no offense.  All lives are little in the grand scheme of things. You don't have to drop acid to consider the fact we're all alive at this particular point in time -- coincidentally or for a reason -- and it's pretty damn miraculous really to chance upon passing these days alongside Others who populate the planet with us.

(Like, love one another, man!)

It's the mind that's most amazing, the rest of the body is just window-dressing (pretty though that may be) to keep the brain functioning.  That's where most folks, in their old age, often get it wrong, in my humble observation.  They are taught to go-go-go and keep their bodies up with busy work. nttawwt. Early in life, it helps grow the little muscles and build daily routines for people who worked with their backs, peasant stock.

The men who were the monks didn't physically exert like that, but oh, the mind muscles they exercised daily.  The elders who don't have this addiction to "doing" (not the daily necessities, but little projects they've cooked up to keep themselves busy/active) never value rest, or cerebral inner lives, it seems.  They rush to "exercise", not conserving resources or considering what they're hoping to accomplish even in their rushed way and days.  Their bodies end up beating themselves, and taking a still functioning brain -- if they're lucky -- with them.

It's a temple. How are you treating it?

I respect the human body, but I'll never worship it because it's temporary -- mine and yours. ("unto dust ye shall return...") Whomping away in old age on a pickleball court for company and camraderie in joking who topped who, or keeping score and collecting "wins", not joking, might cut it for some minds...

As for me and mine, I will serve something higher.  Come join us. It's not safe to venture into the unknown where you're not the expert in all things, but it's a healthy way to live life.  Respecting yourself and Others and what's come before us and still to come, even outside our lineage.

I can live like that.