I applaud and participate in the growing world of fitness,
but I keep thinking about this culture in the context of problems in other
parts of the world. What would people in
the third world think if they saw all our gyms and walking tracks?
Imagine explaining a walking track to a Ugandan or an Indian. We don’t walk enough in our daily lives, so
we create these places where people walk in circles, just so they can walk. We need a special place that’s safe and
convenient. A few years ago I heard that
Stokesdale has more walking tracks per capita than any other city in the
country. I like walking tracks.
Then I ride a Real Ryder stationary bike at my gym. It’s lots of fun and a butt-kicking
workout. We fog up the windows, as we
pant and sweat. We pay money and make time
to sweat, because we don’t exert ourselves enough in our actual work.
One day as I pedaled through Tabata intervals, I wondered
how this energy could be harvested. We burn
calories just for fitness. But people exert
this kind of energy in other places to plow fields, get to school, and haul
water. What if we could harness all the
energy generated in the name of fitness?
We could start with electrical generators built into stationary
bikes. The electricity could be stored
in batteries and used to power, say, electric lights in a homeless shelter.
Yeah, I know it won’t work.
I can list lots of reasons.
Maybe someone else can come up with a way to harvest our
sweat for the gospel. Then burning
calories will make a difference in something more than our body mass indexes.
