I really appreciated my cousin's reply to my thoughts on some gym patron stereotypes last week. Megan (my cousin) lives in Portland, Oregon and had a regional touch to add...
"I noticed a lot of New Year resolutioners. I hope they stick with it. Oh and we have a lot of young Asian men who look like they are training for martial arts videos. They are fun to watch as they do crazy pull ups and high kicks, etc."
With this as inspiration, this morning I thought I'd share an entry from last week's "gym patron typology" that due to word count got edited off...I saw her again this weekend...
The Wee Sprite. She wears minimalist FiveFinger running shoes and enters the gym in a full sprint. Other patrons while alarmed have learned to ignore her I can't. Her moves are part dancer, part cheerleader, part awkward kid in high school who lettered in Cross Country...
She wears a Whole Foods tote over one shoulder filled with nothing but an extra t-shirt and a catalogue of Native American jewelry and prints of endangered animals. Her stare is icy and always straight ahead like the hungry wolf of winter. Thwap thwap thwap! She jumps off her elliptical machine mid-stride and starts a frenzied series of jumps and arm-waving incantations.
What is she doing? No one knows.
She engages no one but her weird series of deep knee bends and kicking at the water fountain draws curious looks.
I can never stop watching...
She runs to the abdominal mats doing a flying set of leaps...just when i think she might be a hurdler she starts doing quick transition yoga poses and cheer-leader jumps.
The fast and furious approach is hard to watch and evokes in me a painful curiosity.
I have not written her story yet, but when I do I have a sense that it will end something like this.
"Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the world better."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
okay, that's all I have today. I hope you find some time for your own relaxation and reflection.
Happy Monday,
Amanda
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