Exercise

When I started training as a pilot last year I could see by looking at the pilots I knew that it isn’t the healthiest lifestyle. For obvious reasons it involves a lot of sitting as well as eating out. While hardly “overweight” (I’ve always been skinny) I was not in my best shape and was starting to develop a bit of a belly. Given that my wife likes me skinny, it was important for me to establish some basic habits early in my new career.

Back in high school I ran cross-country and track and have always “enjoyed” running. I put that in parentheses because it’s not as if I can’t wait to jump out the door and sprint. But I do like changing scenery and it’s something I’ve done with my family since I was a kid.

So I started running. After a few times I found a route about two miles long and that worked. I also threw in some push-ups and sit-ups. After a couple of months I had lost ten pounds and instead of my pants being too tight now I had to worry about them being too loose. Part of it was definitely the exercise, and part was eating less. Frozen dinners (no, not TV dinners—I do have standards) are only so big and don’t allow for second helpings, so that helped to limit my calorie intake. All in all I looked and felt better than I had in a couple of years or more.

Meanwhile my wife has been going to 24 Hour Fitness and so she added me to her pas as a “VIP,” meaning as long as I accompanied her it only cost another $15 per month. We try and go every week together so I get a little bit of weights, etc.

Now that I’m out of training I run around my “crash pad” apartment and around the hotels I stay at when I’m on the road. I still do push-ups regularly, but sit-ups fell by the wayside because they always strained my back.

Then yesterday I googled “abdominal exercise” and found out that the very best exercise also requires no equipment. Good, because I wasn’t going to buy any. It’s called the “bicycle crunch,” something you may all be aware of but new to me. Not radically new, but new. And it doesn’t strain my back but does work my abs hard. So I’m happy and have re-committed myself to doing a set or two every day. I can spare 10 minutes.

Did I mention my wife likes me skinny? She’s a great motivator, in all the right ways.

Something To Think About

Sometimes a film comes along that not only entertains you but also makes you think. A lot. The Dark Knight is just such a film.

First of all, I am a semi-reformed former comics geek. While I didn’t regularly collect Batman comics, there were certain series, notably Frank Miller’s dark and stylized Dark Knight Returns and gritty Batman: Year One work, that mesmerized and enthralled me. So for me the ultimate Batman is the one played straight, that shows the ethical and moral dilemmas inherent in combating evil and the choices with their natural consequences. Fortunately for me, director Christopher Nolan has a similar vision of the Batman.

After seeing the film the most striking thing was the late Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker. Nothing new here. If he doesn’t win an Oscar for best actor this year then a serious miscarriage of justice will have occurred. But as excellent as the performance was, it is how the character was written that allows Ledger’s portrayal to say something deep and meaningful.

The Joker is the personification of chaos and anarchy, and for that reason is perhaps the best cinematic representation of Satan I have ever seen. To him, only disorder has meaning. “You have all these rules and you think they'll save you. . . . The only sensible way to live in this world is without rules!” We learn no origin, as whenever he reveals something about himself it is a lie. “Nothing. No matches on prints, DNA, dental. Clothing is custom, no labels. Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint. No name, no other alias.” Not knowing anything, we cannot empathize with him. He just is. And what he is is blood and horror. As Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s butler, describes him, “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”



Another aspect of Satan’s character embodied in the Joker (as pointed out to me by my wife) is his desire to “deceive the very elect.” The Joker turns Harvey Dent from an incorruptible champion of the law and order inherent in civilization into an agent of personal vengeance and destruction. He brags, “I took Gotham's white knight, and brought him down to our level. It wasn't hard. Y'see, madness, as you know, is like gravity. All it takes is a little...push.” No one is immune to the conceit that the rules, which create and build community, don't apply to them personally. “You thought we could be decent men in an indecent time,” Two-Face bemoans. “But you were wrong. The world is cruel, and the only morality in a cruel world is chance.” One man decides that his will trumps the greater whole.

Interestingly, in society today and throughout history certain individuals and groups try to redefine those rules to let anarchy back in, believing that they act in the name of liberty. Liberty is not synonymous with anarchy, but when society normalizes behaviors and activities that strike at the very order that strengthens the community, it becomes the enemy of order. And where order breaks down, chaos ensues.

The Batman, on the other hand, is the polar opposite of the Joker. He is human. He doubts himself. The terror the Joker has unleashed strikes him to the very core. Nevertheless, he stays true to his moral compass. Ultimately the difference between civilization and anarchy is a set of mutually recognized and respected rules. The Joker has none, Two-Face gives his up, but the Batman stays true. Moreover, for the good of Gotham City the Batman takes upon himself the sins of another to further Dent’s work as District Attorney (See Leviticus 16:20-22). In Commissioner Gordon’s words, “[H]e's the hero Gotham deserves, but not the one it needs right now...and so we'll hunt him, because he can take it. Because he's not a hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector...a dark knight.”

Lots to think about. Dark and disturbing, but in the end hopeful. I don’t know that this movie is one that I’ll watch again and again, but its message will stay with me for a long time to come.