It is exercise. But to what end? If I could know that on May 17, 2031 I will be hit and killed by a beer truck, and that at that time, (or I guess technically a moment before that time), I will still be in relatively good health for a 71 year old man, would I continue to exercise? Or would I opt for a lazier comfort? I believe I would continue to exercise. Then the question becomes, “Why?”

This is an interesting question for every one of us who in this moment are relatively healthy and active. Pick a future date in the next ten years and/or at least two to three decades before your 100th birthday and imagine that beer truck. We've all got one; your own personal beer truck, lying in wait for you. Knowing this, and knowing the date, would you continue to expend extra effort and maintain discipline at your current rate? Not knowing the date, changes the dynamics of this consideration in that we will believe effort / discipline / exercise / activity has a good chance of pushing that date further into the future. But with a definitive date there will come a point when it is just exercise. A realization that it will not change the fact of the looming beer truck.

So perhaps the answer to the question “Why?” is, “because I would rather my health to that point be relative to a greater degree of effort and discipline than for it to be relative to lazy comfort.” So now the question becomes “When?” – a different when.

Having coronary artery disease and having had more than one heart attack, all dating back to 2010, six years ago I stopped eating meat; (I still eat fish and seafood). I also exercise. I have had no hospitalizations since this conversion and I believe my diet and exercise have played a significant part in this. So the specific when question for me, if my beer truck date is May 17, 2031, “On what date do I once again become a regular at KFC? And Cane's? And Popeye’s?”

Though this is interesting, the fact is we do not know our date and we will continue to expend varying degrees of effort to prolong our existence. So why don't we apply this chain of reasoning to Humanity as a species? When I do, I see KFC, Cane’s and Popeye's as capitalism, power and wealth and, as a species, I do not see much exercise. I do not see much effort truly toward prolonging our existence. Somewhere along the way we have mistaken bureaucracy for Beauty, convention for Truth, certainty for Wisdom, division for Justice, entitlement for Salvation. And as a result, as a species, our effort / discipline / exercise / activity is designed to prolong the existence of bureaucracy, convention, certainty, division, capitalism, power, wealth, entitlement. For us, as a species, the beer truck is looming.

The actual original question I asked myself that prompted this week's thought was, “why on Earth am I expending weekly effort to think, learn and write when it is becoming more and more obvious that it is just an exercise?” In this regard, alongside my desire to aid in prolonging the existence of Humanity, I still have hope. Foolish? Perhaps. But I can't help but hope and I feel strongly that one's hope must be active; so I will continue to think, learn and write and I will (likely) continue to be mean and surly and I will continue to work to save the world.