The fact of living healthily

The Einsteinian concept of ‘relativity’ is one of the most profound yet simple concepts you can come across. Profound more so because of its universality, the universality that makes it a simple solution for almost every conceivable enigma or problem or puzzle or whatever you call it - for everything that requires an answer, so to say.

It applies to us, in every aspect of our daily lives. It defines ‘new’, ‘old’, ‘young’, ‘aged’, ‘right’, ‘wrong’, in fact it defines dichotomies. And yet at the same time it blurs the dichotomies. For how young is young? How old is old? How fast is fast? How sick is sick? Just imagine - ‘relatively old’ could mean a few days (in the case of stale food) or a few million years (in the case of evolution)!

In today’s world, when everything whizzes by, when even nanotechnology will soon become passe, it is this one thing that will still be around to define what is the latest ‘new’, what is the latest ‘old’…

In this context, are our lives relative? In the face of that eternal constant, the great equalizer - death - yes, our lives are relative too. If that is the case, then does it make sense to run 5 kms every day, twist and contort your body in every conceivable position in an effort at physical stability and mental peace, try and climb the ladder of success, stay fit? Of all things, stay fit? If our lives are relative, and death is the constant, then what is the point of fitness, health, wellness?

There is a very valid point to all these seemingly futile endeavors (’futile’ in the context of relativity). The point is to live, for how many ever days you get to, a full and happy life. A life where you have the physical ability to do things you want to do, the mental peace and balance to be as you want to be. The point is to live the days of our lives with abandon. To not spend our days worying about disease, sickness, death. To be able to do 500 squats, run 5 kilometers, run 20 flights of stairs happily, sprint with your pet dog over a 50 meter stretch and maybe even win… To live as long as you get to, and be proud about yourself, that you have a body that you have taken care of, loved… that is why exercising and all is important, more than being just trim. because you take care of those things that you care about (the term ‘take care’ is self-explanatory), love.

When the focus becomes the act of living, and not the fact of living, is when we can say we have taken the first steps to a healthy and eventful life…

1 comment July 18th, 2006 Written By: daisy