Lunch convos: Biking to work and quicksand
It was August 2016. I was eating with a few fellow staffers from my church at a Mexican restaurant in Blacksburg. We usually laugh constantly together at inane and even insane comments. This particular lunch made me realize that I should take notes of comments made for blog purposes. They will either produce a chuckle, or you can do the SMH thing and go on your way.
I'll cover two comments in this entry:
"Itused to be 'I bike to work,' and I felt sorry for you, but now peoplesay 'I bike to work' pretentiously."
I can't remember if Alex or Aaron contributed this jewel. The conversation had hovered for a few moments on physical fitness and the current fads related to losing weight and/or working out. I think we'd been rather snarky about CrossFit during the conversation - mainly because there's a club right next to the church office. About the time we are leaving for our generally unhealthy lunches, there's a parade of runners that we have to wait to pass us as we exit our parking lot.
While we are daydreaming ofenchiladas, chips and salsa on the brain, these folks are literally cheering for one another as they run by us while carrying large rubber balls up the street and back.
I get it. I do. Staying fit is easier with community.Perhaps people have always been pretentious about current fitness fads? Maybeone caveman saidto another, "It's so sad you're still using the boulder lift. I've discovered that you can lose weight and build muscle faster by waving mastodon bones above your head for 30 minutes a day."
By the way, about the only heavy lifting we did at lunch that day was elevating a forkful of burrito to our mouths.
Next up:
"I really thought quicksand is going to be a problem in real life."
This was most definitely another Aaronic observation. The conversation drifted to daily annoyances, when the quicksand comment sank in. (see what I did there?) He followed it up by blaming The Princess Bride movie for this fear.
One takeaway:
Irrational fears can stump anyone. It's reassuringto learnthat "do not fear" is one of the Bible's most often-repeated commands. Keith Krell has a wonderful entry called Fear Factor in which he says:
According to our nation’s Bureau of Standards, a dense fog covering seven city blocks, to a depth of a hundred feet, contains less than one glass of water. All of that fog, if it could be condensed into water, wouldn’t quite fill a drinking glass. Compare this to the things we often worry about. Like fog our worries can thoroughly block our vision of the light of God’s promises, but the fact is they have little substance to them. When you feel fearful, remind yourself that by tomorrow this fear may not seem as pressing. Most of the things that we fret about are relatively insignificant.
Wrap-Up
Enjoying this lunch convo series? Have no fear. I've had lunch multiple times since August and have a lot more comments to share. In the meantime, I think the "Pulling Yourself Out of Quicksand" arm workout may be something you want to try instead of biking to work.