MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO

     I’ve always been a huge proponent of Mens sana in corpore sano ever since I first heard it in Latin
class in high school. A sound mind in a sound body. Great concept.

    Unfortunately, practical application isn’t always easy.

     I’ve never been athletic. I was the nerdy little kid in
grade school who was chosen last in recess sports.

     “You have to take her. I had her last time.”

     “No, you didn’t. You won last time, and you wouldn’t have
won if you’d had her!”

     Big deal. So I couldn’t hit a baseball with a bat two feet
wide. Couldn’t put a basketball in a hoop right in front of me. Those other
kids couldn’t tell stories!

    But I did recognize early on that organized sports were not
for me.

    Then running became a popular activity. I could do that! I
could get up before dawn and run around the lake, put one foot in front of the
other with nobody to criticize that I’d missed the blasted ball again. If
sometimes those feet got tangled up and I fell, nobody knew but me! I loved
running. I ran three miles a day. I wrote poems about running. I was going to
run the rest of my life. Jim Fixx died while running. What a spectacular way to
go!

     When I started writing, my running time was also my plotting
time. As I ran through the early morning mist, along sidewalks and park trails,
past houses and trees, the creativity increased along with the endorphins. I plotted
new books, my chapter for the day, how to write out of the corner I’d written
myself into. I had found the perfect exercise.

     I had great leg muscles, great lung capacity, great
creativity…and bad knees. Eventually I had to have knee replacements.

     Knee replacements do not inspire creativity. Writing while in
pain sucks. Writing while on pain meds can produce some very interesting…but
not necessarily good…pages. I’m glad I’ve run out of knees to have replaced.

     I can no longer run. I had to find a replacement. On the
advice of my orthopedic surgeon, I bought an elliptical machine. Much easier on
the knees, especially bionic knees.

     But it’s boring. It sits in the basement next to a wall and
never goes anywhere. No trees sprouting new leaves in spring and dropping those
leaves in the fall. No houses with people inside, all of whom had stories I
could tell. The only saving grace is that I can read my Kindle while spinning
endlessly and going nowhere beside the wall that never changes.

     Exercises change but the writing must go on. Adhering to a
routine works best for me.

     

     That’s what I strive for five days a week.

     However, life frequently interferes.

Monday: Take car in for routine maintenance so the damned “Maintenance
Due Soon” light will stop coming on every freaking time I start the car.

Tuesday: Take eyes in for yearly exam so I can throw away the
reminder card that’s been sitting on my desk for two months.

Wednesday: Make two Triple Chocolate Mousse Cakes for Bunco group
because I’ve been going to meetings for a year and eating their desserts and
now it’s my turn.

Thursday: Journey across town to chiropractor and then to medical
doctor because I mopped the floor after all that baking, slipped, and pulled
muscles from shoulder to ankle resulting in so much pain, I couldn’t even catch
my breath to curse.

Friday: Thursday’s injury makes sitting extremely painful. Must
regularly change ice packs strapped to butt. Nevertheless, soldier on.

     If I’m lucky, I manage one ideal workday a week.

     Writing isn’t always convenient. It’s not always fun. But
because it is as essential to me as breathing, somehow it always happens.

     By the way, I’m writing this while waiting at the
chiropractor’s office.