Several careers ago, I
worked with college students in a residential setting. Over time, I developed two rules to help make
that community work, and later a third one was added because there seemed to be
some confusion. The rules are:
1.
Be kind. (This is my daughter-in-law’s positive
reframing of the original, which was “don’t be a jerk.” I like Sam’s version better.)
2.
Use your good
judgment.
3.
No sangria
ever, under any circumstances.
(That third rule became
necessary after a party resulted in a bathroom situation that looked like the
scene of a mass murder. Sangria apparently
is antithetical to rules one and two and prevents a person from abiding by
them. Just don’t go there. It will be all right.)
I thought of these rules recently
as I went to do my heavy lifting workout.
I got the Olympic bar all set up in the power rack with my warm-up weight
for squats and then when I put the bar on my back, my shoulder did a thing. It wasn’t a catastrophic thing. It was a twingy sort of thing caused by the
position. I could have pushed through it,
but I would have ended up in violation of rules one and two. It would not have been kind to myself and it
is bad judgment to do stuff that is likely to cause something twingy to get
worse. (I really never worry about violating
rule three, especially at 8 in the morning on Saturday.)
It is surprisingly hard
sometimes to stop working out. We like
to achieve stuff. We like to be tough
and powerful. We are trained to admire
sports professionals who play through injury.
I am not suggesting that we all turn into delicate flowers who refuse to
do anything lest we break a nail. I am
saying that it is also important to be smart.
Working out our brains is
also useful.
