7 Heure Du Mat

Song of the Day 08/15/2022

7 Heure Du Mat by Jacqueline Taïeb

As with a lot of my desired habits, I have an unhealthy relationship with fitness in that it occupies 95 percent of my mind but, in action, only maybe .05 percent of my time. I know this is a normal, quotidian fact of life that I am not alone in—most human beings are defined by the tension between their actions and their ideals, between the faith in what we can do and the reality in what we actually do—still, the idea disturbs me. 

On a walk this morning with my dog, I was racked with guilt that I hadn’t, as planned, gotten up a little bit earlier and made my way, first thing, to the gym. An overly muscular, shirtless man ran by. I couldn’t help but think: I read and write, sedentary. You run shirtless, spend the day crafting muscles in the gym, etc. What if I told you, in detail, about some of Emmanuel Carrere’s books, and you gave me a bit of your strength and endurance, as well as, probably, a bit of positive outlook? Wouldn’t that be good? A more egalitarian distribution of character traits? I tripped on a small rock that caught me by surprise and was quickly reminded of my injured hip, my atrophied right shoulder. No, unfortunately things don’t work that way. Besides, something tells me the running muscleman wouldn’t take the bargain. Most people would prefer to be perfectly fit than know any minuscule fact regarding the discourse surrounding contemporary French nonfiction. Really, how is that trait transmutable in the liberal free market? Well, more for me, I suppose. Fewer muscles too.