Your Local Gym

In my morning perusal of the interweb this morning I came across a headline that immediately caught  my attention. Not the clickbait type of headline, but one more suited to offer a legitimate, or feasible, possibility. The headline was this: Can your local gym save the world?

The author was published by the editors of Outside magazine, a group that I respect from a publisher that can claim Jan Werner of Rolling Stone fame as founder. I have linked the article here for your consideration and will condense the salient points should you be tossing shoes and your kit into a bag in preparation for a workout, and thus time crunched.

The author’s noble cause is furthered by the admission that while saving the world is admirable, the odds that you at your gym saving it are astronomical. And therefore important. Because we all need to feel a degree of connectivity with all sentient beings. We need to feel as if we are doing something constructive towards the stewardship and improvement of our planet and species. I agree with this enough to call it the singular superlative. It is the best thing we can all agree on doing. What, I paraphrase, could be more important that saving the planet?

In establishing a ripe medium for the exchange of ideas, the author examines the vast difference between the local spa, the country club and the up-scale boutique where everybody is the same (young, white and upwardly mobile) and the antithesis, your local Y.

YMCA.

Where black lifts alongside white, gay treadmills with straight and red runs with the blues. In a no-frills atmosphere where the important thing is not so much looking good but doing good. Doing better. Co-existing with those who differ in color, creed or orientation. At its most basic, cellular level, that place where muscle means magic and sweat shows stamina, we are all one. I desire to increase my health and fitness and invite you to join in the adventure. There might be something I can learn from you along the way as a result of our teamwork, camaraderie and commitment. And vice versa, as the reciprocal is also true.

Can you imagine the myriad positive effects possible if we took it to the gym instead of the web? Humanity facing itself with open hearts? One cannot look the other way when a teammate is in need of help. It runs concurrent to our nature, no matter the circumstance or situation. Once I commit to our effort and you return the vow, it is in ‘no matter what’ territory. There we cannot fail.

The answer, the one I trust you will agree to as well, is yes. Overwhelmingly yes. A thousand times yes.

Your local gym can save the world.

But only with you in it.