Too Much Time on My Hands

Given the whole of human history, exercise is such an extremely odd phenomenon.

For many of us, the task of living our everyday lives is not physically demanding enough, so we have to spend thousands on proper equipment and admission to special social clubs in order to voluntarily torture our bodies into shape.

How could you possibly explain this to someone from the time Jesus walked the earth, or the Civil War, or even World World II?

"You see, Mr. Caveman, and, ha-ha, this is the funny part, we really don't have to work anymore throughout the vast majority of our lives. We don't have to track, hunt, kill or butcher animals for food; we just lift it out of the freezer case.

"We don't even have to chop and haul wood, nor do we have to labor to start fires; we just push a button in our house, er, cave."

Isn't it patently ridiculous what many of us spend to have someone else show us how to work? Pilates? Spinning class? Step aerobics? The sweaty dividends fueled by a desire to look and feel healthy all went by other names previously: laundry, cooking, cleaning, hunting, farming, splitting wood.

I have an awful lot of respect for anyone who performs physical labor to earn a living these days., and it's why shows like "Dirty Jobs" and "Ax Men" are doing well on cable. It's been so long since many of us have seen work that brings sweat to one's brow, it's impossible to take our eyes off it when we come across it.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go pop a couple Advil. My calves are sore after my jog today because my orthotics didn't provide adequate support for my elongated stride.

Sigh.