9 May 2008 (3 Iyar 5768)
I have been running regularly since I was 18 years old. There were times when I ran one or even two hours every evening and participated in competitions, but for the past decade or so I have been running for about half an hour preceded by stretching and isometrics on the early mornings of weekdays (Sunday through Thursday). This week I decided to variegate the way I send one of the first hours after getting up in the morning by resuming two physical exercises - cycling and swimming - mainly under the influence of my dear friend who is engaged in triathlon among others and starting two new ones - roller skating and dancing - on my own initiative.
Having been an individualist since childhood (and having paid a heavy price to remain so), I never developed a liking for group sports, such as baseball and soccer. Cycling was my most favorite physical exercise all through my childhood through the year, until I stopped it when I entered a university and started living alone as there was no place to keep my bicycle. It was then that I started running as a possible substitute for cycling as both are aerobic exercises that mainly use legs. I grew up near the sea, so I spent most days of a short summer in my birthplace in the north of Japan swimming (or perhaps to be more precise, bathing) in the sea. Having heard that my above mentioned friend not also runs but also ride a bike and swims regularly and enjoys all the three activities, I soon felt that my suppressed desire for resuming these two activities I stopped many years ago was awakened and could not suppress it any longer. Fortunately or unfortunately, I am a kind of person who can never rest until he gets it done once he sets his mind on something that kindles his interest. So I lost no time in buying a new rode bike, becoming a member of a swimming pool near my apartment in Jerusalem and started cycling and swimming. I have never imagined until this week that cycling and swimming can be such fun. So I am truly grateful to her for inspiring me, though she does not seem to intend to, (and for a number of other positive influences upon me).
I have never skated on rollers, but I did skate on the ice, and ice skating used to be my favorite winter sport until I left my parents' place to start my university studies. Since then I have been dreaming of resuming it back in Japan and here in Israel, but Israel, at least Jerusalem, is far from being ideal, to say the least, for this intoxicating exercise. This Sabbath I walked around near my apartment and happened to see two boys skating on rollers (or to be more precise, on the so-called rollerblades) at a public roller skating rink near the park where I always run. I was totally enchanted by what I saw. I asked them where to buy these skates and on the following day I was already with my new rollerblades. In my first trial at the same rink this week it took me a little less than an hour to remember the necessary movement of my legs and some other parts of my body, but afterward I could skate more or less smoothly, if not as I used to on the ice in my childhood. Roller skating gives me another kind of pleasure than running, cycling and swimming.
Since I started to get involved deeply in Jewish, especially Ashkenazic, culture, it has been one of my dreams to systematically learn Ashkenazic folk dance. On the very day I asked a good old haredi friend of mine to recommend me someone who would be able to teach it I happened to find that there would be a workshop on this dance in Jerusalem guided by someone whom I know and admire as a musicologist and musician specializing in authentic klezmer music. This Monday I participated in the first of the eight planned sessions of this one-time workshop. The teacher has also turned out to be one of the few experts who are familiar with authentic Ashkenazic folk dance. There were about 30 participants; most of them were women in their thirties, forties, fifties and even sixties, and there were only four men, including myself. I enormously enjoyed the first session that lasted three hours. The fact that my dear and inspiring friend agreed to join me in this workshop also added to my pleasure. I am looking forward to the following weekly sessions.
Human bodies, or human beings in general in this respect, are so fascinating; I find it hard to become a misanthrope in spite of all our problems and follies. I am too busy discovering and learning more and more about ourselves and our own bodies (and psyches) to find time for doing the same about plants, animals or extraterrestrials.