Debra Smith

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How much time, money and energy are spent at the gym? It is certainly in vogue. It is good for your health and many people hope that it is good for a social life as well. A daily visit there has become part of a search for a fountain of youth and beauty but has it brought us any closer to our own humanity? Has it actually helped you make any meaningful connections? Could it be that it is derailing and distracting the very people who are meant to change this world for the better?  By isolating individuals in their own solitary search for beauty and fitness, in gritty non-communicative self absorption where the hours are passed without real human connectedness or progress beyond the size of the biceps or gluts, we may be diverting the very power needed to make a difference.

Could there be a better way?

What if instead of spending time, money and energy at the gym we all found some of our exercise another way? Can you imagine a world in which all that time, effort, energy, devotion and exertion were spent in the community helping one another? Think about that the next time you are doing the tenth meaningless mile on your treadmill. (Treadmill? Doesn't that say it all?)

I think it might be a real work out if we all helped our aging neighbours with their gardening, their snow shovelling and their roofing woes. At a time when many people are losing their homes and the faceless corporation are causing the economic meltdown couldn’t we begin to bail out our own neighbours- not necessarily financially- but with good kind help? Climbing ladders to clean out eaves troughs (gutters), digging a garden bed, or shovelling snow is certainly a challenging work out that could leave you feeling physically and emotionally great.

Here is a radical idea: Instead of paying for your gym membership next winter, buy a snow blower and every time it snows dig out your neighbours’ driveways and walkways as your form of exercise and public service. Perhaps you live where there is no winter- what about buying a leaf blower and helping out or cutting the scraggly fronds from some palms trees? I submit that it might be a great work out to help the old man down the street clear out his garage or help that single mother cut her lawn. Instead of spending the hour at the gym in isolation you might meet your neighbours, improve your neighbourhood and learn to connect with real people.

We could find out if people at the local cancer center, the dialysis center or even day care center need help. Define the kind of physical work out that you want and how much time you are willing to spend and offer your assistance. Leave a note on a community message board that says: Looking for a one hour work out. Will lift and tote for one hour -no cost or strings attached. You must be (insert the type of person you are willing to help here- such as –a cancer patient, suffering from Alzheimer’s, or be a widower ). Please call: (insert your cell phone # here).

For your own sake, for the community’s sake and for your own spirit take back the phrase that once was just a human expression and “Just do it” for someone else.