The Wild

While at the gym with my friend Alexis, the other night, I took a good look around me.  There I was, beating the elliptical machine I was sweating over into submission, when I burst out laughing.  I'm quite sure the 2 people on my flanking machines suspected that I'd lost my nut and it would only be a matter of time before I'd go flying off the machine and the paramedics would haul me away.

No such thing happened.  I regained my composure and looked around again.  I saw a sea of redirected energy.  There were probably a hundred people in that building - lifting weights, huffing and puffing on cardio machines, and dancing in a scheduled class - all working towards the same goal.  Stress relief.

Some might say they go to the gym to lose weight or to lower their blood pressure, but the reality is that we don't get enough stress relief in our lives naturally.  How many of us walk or run to catch our food, scavenge about for food (not at the fridge or pantry) or even show our true emotions without fear of embarrassment?

All the "civilized" customs that we have often cut us off from what we should do naturally.  These conveniences are definitely nice.  Don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating living out in the woods and chewing on bark to survive (although almost every day I have a moment when I wish I lived out in the woods with the dogs).  But this need to physically run in place like a mouse on a wheel, or lift weights the size of tree trunks is culturally telling .  Because if we didn't do these, our muscles would atrophy from lack of use.  And our heads would surely pop off from frustration.  It's our modern way of getting back to that primitive, natural way of using those bodies we're given.

Dogs are another connection to that wildness.  That's why we can be honest with them.  Everything involving dogs links us to the natural - eating, drinking, walking, playing, stroking, sleeping (and the earthiest of all -  pooping, peeing, and for the unneutered - sex!).  But this is why we love and care for them.  They're that little slice of the what we were before all the "conveniences" drove us to pay membership dues to a place where the mouse wheels are stored so we can run in place.

It's enough to make you grab that leash and celebrate the primitive!