Fitness Centres Fill The Void
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| Photo: Nonqaba waka Msimang. |
The first reason is the desire to be healthy, because the
heart is not a donkey. It does not want
to be overloaded with stuff and we also don’t want to gain such a lot of weight
that we buy a car to accommodate the bulk, cannot walk up a flight of stairs or
go through a normal door.
Filling a personal void is the other one, more private, which
we do not divulge to the sweating bodies around us. The void is our destination after the gym, exacerbated
by celebrations like Christmas, the biggest advertisement of a ‘happy home’.
The family is supposed to be the antibiotic for job stress
and rude train passengers. It is
perceived as a garden of smiles that illuminates our hearts and listens to our litany
of complaints about the outside world.
That is why the most painful void is the mausoleum of silence
at breakfast and dinner. It makes gym
members appreciate music that accompany the lunges, the weightlifting and power
rides on stationary bicycles.
Chit chat in the changing room among long term members also soothe
the empty soul. I’m alive.
I hear voices, human contact. People
are talking about early snow, their summer, ageing parents that refuse to take
their medication, grandchildren and kids that bought them gym membership.
Making friends or finding someone with the same void is a
long shot, bearing in mind the prevalence of cellphones in the weight room and
the treadmill. Most people are the Y
chromosome (headphones hanging like a Y).
Aristocrats in ancient England had no problem finding friends
in gentlemen’s clubs because they were joined at the hip by class. The corner pub was, and still is, the alternative
for working class folks to take a break from home. There is no class to bind members in fitness
centres. They are a mixed bag of nuts. There is no guarantee that you will find a
kindred spirit, with a similar void.
In some cases, emotionally injured people go to the gym to
fix what caused the void in the first place, spouses that avoid them like the
plague because they are overweight. There
might be other unsaid reasons.You will work it out whatever they are, because you feel the void. Gyms are for working out, aren’t they?
By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.
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