Postmodern Aerobics :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Postmodern AerobicsThese days, Im living life flat-out, liter all in ally and figuratively. I read literally since Im lying face up in a backwards float right now, and figuratively since Im in the final stretch of my coursework for a degree in literature. I come to the pool, though, even with exam deadlines looming everyplace my head, or perhaps be-cause of them, since I need to feel all the dryness fall away, experience even for just a moment the whole step of weightlessness.From my vantage point in the pool, I can see the aerobic exercise class hard at work in the plate-glass exercise populate on the balcony above. The other side of that room is lined with mirrors, and many of the members slang themselves step, extend, and jiggle. I can hear the bass line of the retro discotheque music pounding down through the foundation, overpowering the strain of neoclassical music wavering from the radio on the pool deck. I gravel my head back in the water and think about how unhappy they look, their faces wrought in sweat, determination, and desperate amusement. It occurs to me that they are engaged in a kind of postmodern aerobics. No excesses enter that stripped-down room with them they down to it only a sharp perception of their bodies, fragmenting themselves into pecs, abs, and buns of steel. Constantly assessing themselves in terms of the minimal, they self-consciously measure the body fat on their speeding arms and thighs with a small device that pinches their flesh between dickens levers. Even more painful to watch is the process that follows as they survey the units with stern faces, consulting each other in an almost robotic fashion. It seems theyll let aught get in the way of sculpting the exterior, perfecting the outer package. The stomach needs work, I will hear one of them say later in the console room she will not say my stomach or my torso. each one proceeds to talk about an element of her body as if it were something she has managed to se parate from herself. And Ive never once heard them mention the soul.While members of the know competitive team may possess some or all of these qualities, Sunset swimmers do not think this way. We come to the pool in search of our souls, that part of ourselves that loves to be submerged and buoyed and enveloped by water.