do it clean

"Ive got a barrel of this...what do I do with it?" - Echo & The Bunnymen

 

Why, do it clean of course. My relentless pursuit of improved physical health is taking its toll. I have now lost 27 pounds

since January 3rd and my energy is beginning to lag. I was embarrased to have to walk my bike up a hill on Saturday - not that

the following are excuses - but I didn't start the climb at the bottom and the hill was really a minor moutain run. The failure

wasn't physical, but mental. I should have been able to control the physical impulses, but instead I let myself down. I did get up the

hill (half walking and half riding it truly) and went on to finish the ride easily, but the feeling that I'd completely bonked was a recipe

for doom for my whole regimen.

 

The pressing need now is to edify the lethargic and uncontrolled mindset that is afflicting me. I can degenerate into Holden

Caulfeld self pity worshipping at its post modern currency of thought or I can truly rebel by investigating the classics. I read Homer's

Odyssey recently and it was a bit of a revelation. I was as familiar with the story as most college graduates that consider themselves to

have a small percentage of erudition, but actually reading it was a pursuit delayed. I liked the obvious parts; fooling the Cyclops, the

Sirens calling, the battle against the suitors in the end, but it was the more mundane events that were really interesting. The

ceremonial and ritual behavior with visitors was particularly intriguing. Heroic and domestic life coincide and compliment.

 

So I need to read Shakespeare to shake up the corpuscles in my head. Dante can take me on harrowing journey through

the depths of hell (I'm not talking about viewing the movie Gremlins again although it does have similarites to The Divine Comedy).

Paradise Lost can show me the devil's side of things. I think all teachers should be required to teach that Milton is responsible for the

idea of the anti-hero. Since I've read some portions of all of those I know they should be good for my mind.

 

The biggest problem I'm having right now is a general flailing about when it comes to reading something. I want to read

something, but I'll spend a half an hour just perusing the shelves in my home and when I find something I can only give it

a desultory read through a chapter or two and then forget about it. Eventually something like Homer will arrive and I'll see a book

through, but until then I'll be out of sorts; in an intellectual freefall where the tired body defeats the mind every time.