I have never understood why we as intelligent human beings do not always act in our own interests. For instance, every one knows that exercise is good for you, at least in moderate amounts, and yet many of us do not get enough exercise on a regular basis. And the weight thing too. I know full well that every one should be thin, but I persist in being overweight. We are a perverse group for sure, always paying more attention to the short term benefit rather than the long term glory. Not all the time of course, but certainly often enough to be harmful. It is a problem for sure.
This is a book worth reading. "The Snoring Bird", by Bernd Heinrich. I found this book at Borders in San Antonio on Saturday night, on the two for one table. I recognized the author from reading an article in Smithsonian magazine several years ago about ravens. He has written a couple of books about ravens so I was interested to see what he had to see. I also bought two books by Alexander McCall Smith from the same table. Those books I read the first day here, but this Heinrich book needs some digesting slowly. It is a fascinating story about his Father and his life from 1895 until the present, from the viewpoint of the German/Polish point of experience. I am really enjoying the book. Living in East Prussia in the early half of the twentieth century was not easy, as the province became Poland after the first World War, then Germany invaded them and took them back until Yalta. All the while they had to try to escape the Russians who were on the move to their area. Anyway, It is a fascinating tribute to his Father, who although he was difficult, did allow them to all escape to end up in Maine, where of course they were
poverty stricken but alive. This is a book worth reading, after you have finished your exercises.
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Your comment on why we do not do the things we should reaches right to the heart of the underpinnings of all religions. It all comes down to the fact the people recognized that, in the words of the old Anglican Book of Common Prayer, "We have done those things which we out not to have done and left undone those things which we out to have done".
Dad loved this quote.
Obviously it refers to many more things than not going to the gym but it seems to me that on this observation, all the many religions built their structures of rules, regulations and hierarchies. Of course the ones making the observations and writing the rules set themselves up as authorities directed by God. But your observation about the gym shows that this is a basic human problem. Whether or not it all stems from Adam and Eve's Original Sin or whether early sages wrote Genesis to justify the observation is away beyond me.
There endeth the First Lesson.
Dave.
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