Second Essay:

[18monthmission]

I want to talk about the agon, a word used by the Greeks in days of old that is the root to the word agony. Agon is the Latin word meaning struggle, combat, contest, agony. When I talk of agon, I am not just talking of punishing our physical bodies into submission; yes that is part of it, the training of the body, but that is not the whole of it

Comments

[18monthmission]

"is that what they were meeting for? heh... i thought it was a battle of the minds to see whose mind was beefier for their own self gratification. : P"

Oh...yes...that too. :p

I know what you mean bout focusing on what is and isn't beautiful, I can not stand gyms. Or weight lifting. The world puts such an emphisas on strong well built men as the deffinition of male beauty that I want to stay far far away from it. I'd rather be skinny with a flabby stomach and be able to run a half marathon. When I talk about persueing our physical agon and aciving our physical best, I am not talking about seeking beauty, nor am I refering to beauty when I speak of physical perfection, the perfection I am seeking in myself is the absolute best that I can be, not the absolute best I can look. SO yes I do agree that to put too much emphasis on the body, in terms of beauty is waistful vanity, I agree wholeheartedly on that.

" i suppose at times i would just rather think of the body as a shell rather than a temple just because of the vanity thang. there's got to be a balance that God has always intended though - it's just hard to see it in the society we live in though."

I can not agree with you more on this point Rose, I spend my day consiously NOT thinking of my body as a temple, I am too afraid that I would become vain in that thought. I love the clarity of mind I get when I run, and it was during running that the thoughts of these essays were formed, and yes, I did like how you didn't say rambling this time :p

Thank you so much for the compliment, I have I believe thriteen more essays written, I just have to wait until I am at work to post them, or get the electronic copies to my civilian email so I can put them in fromt here. I am working on one still that is hard forme to get out what I want to say. ANyway Rose, again, thank you for taking the time to read and comment, I hope you continue to enjoy and give feed back and ask questions :)