The Gym
In ancient Greece the Gymnasium was a building originally used for athletic activities, but which came, over time, to be used also as a place of study and philosophical discussion. They, therefore, became centres of intellectual endeavour, which even came to surpass, but never completely substitute, their function as a place of exercise.
‘The Gym’, wherever that may be, is a place of self-discovery. This is where we annihilate the unnecessary. We ready ourselves for the impending labours, not only physically, but spiritually.
“We must punish the body to perfect the soul.”
-Mark Twight
The interest and appeal of the generic ‘globo gym’ has waned, and perhaps with good reason. Unfortunately the uninspiring fitness culture remains. There are deeper more difficult questions, and the answers lay elsewhere.
Our biggest sacrifice is taking an hour to voluntary mimic manual labour in an air conditioned facility with showers, saunas, and fancy soaps.
The difficulties that need answering have no aesthetic value. These are difficulties and questions that reside deep within the soul, and it is there where they must be overcome.
Although we live in a materialistic world where external changes are celebrated; it is in fact these internal changes which have the ability to be lasting.
Strength, for example, is not the weight on the bar. This is an expression of strength, it’s not strength itself. Strength in it’s essence is our ability to endure the load. Like the walls of a fortress. Though if what you do in the gym cannot be transferred to life beyond this artificial space, it has no value. Our strength can also be measured in our ability to maintain our values, beliefs and discipline. In our courage to show kindness in an unkind world.
Develop a tolerance. Learn to endure. You think it difficult when it’s not. Your ‘effort’ need not be commended. Your willingness to ‘suffer’ is just that; completely voluntary. You are free to choose otherwise. The work, not the outcome nor it’s reward, is all you need. Yet we choose to ‘suffer’ in hope of recognition or admiration. Chances are you’ve never truly suffered. Very few of us have. We suffer more in imagination than in reality.
So let go of this modern fitness culture. Return to a place of effort and reflection. Keep the floor hard, the walls stripped back and the sharp edges on show. Because this is not a place of comfort or conformity. It is a place of effort and change.
“I’m a writer, and everything I write is both a confession and a struggle to understand things about myself and this world in which I live. This is what everyone’s work should be-whether you dance or paint or sing. It is a confession, a baring of your soul, your faults, those things you simply cannot or will not understand or accept. You stumble forward, confused, and you share. If you’re lucky, you learn something.”
-Arthur Miller
