My Exercise Routine

  

I don’t run or jog.  I don’t go to the gym, swim or go bike riding, but I do try to get to the library at least once a week.  I believe it is important to take my brain out for a little exercise.  It is the one constant in my life, that inner voice that has never failed to keep me company. 

Exposing it to other philosophies, other ways of seeing the world are important.  Picking up a book at random and reading what that person was thinking about at that particular time can be enlightening.  No matter if it is fiction, or some historical event, or perhaps a real-life adventure.  No matter what it is, it’s all new to me and so very different from following the same tired path along the lake, seeing the same dog-walkers and nodding hello to the same strangers.

It challenges my vocabulary as well as my view of things around me.  I have taken my brain to Europe and to the inner city, where an actual visit might bring longevity into question.  I have shown it the Alps and the Le Brea Tar Pits.  I have gone kicking and screaming across the pages of Shakespeare and laughed at the grin of Alfred E. Newman.

I have never required Aspirin or a liniment upon completion of my exercises.  And during which time, I haven’t had to duck a Frisbee or swat a single mosquito.  It is air-conditioned, quiet and there has never been any reports of someone being bitten by a bookworm, although I have seen them in great swarms, and smelling of peanut butter and jelly.

 

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