Master of Your Own Fitness Universe

October 3, 2008

Author Tom Wolfe made me feel outfoxed this week when he wrote an editorial in the New York Times commenting on the fate of the not-really-fictional Masters of the Universe, those million dollar bonus- making hotshots from Wall Street that he described so deliciously in Bonfire of the Vanities.
He poked fun at any of our thoughts of Schadenfreude. The REAL masters of the Universe , he says, left Wall Street six years ago to start hedge funds, what I call the Extreme Sports version of investing.
Mostly they relocated to Greenwich and mostly  by strategizing themselves into ingeniously defensive positions that I might as well be blowing spit bubbles rather than pretend to understand.
They continue to reign atop their financial fortune with a nut big enough to support their tasteful lifestyle, which I fantasize as including Evian bubble baths, heated floors, elegant fabrics and classical lines. Their children will NOT attend Technical College or get their ears pierced at age two.
These Masters of the Universe are not worried at all by the past few weeks of financial crisis because they know that THEY are set, with a cache of safe investments nestled away, earning enough to live on the interest alone until about the age of 120.
Well, the rest of us wretches may not be in such a cozy situation financially, but a universe that is within our reach for mastery is our fitness level.
You can be the Master of Your Fitness Universe. It doesn’t take anything more than an investment of time. No matter how low your IQ, how bad your credit, how tasteless you dress or
how out of shape you are, at least, as my Grandma Love used to say,
At least you have your health.
And it really is a priceless investment that will not be devaluated or lose it’s worth.
Just like a tighter budget can make us appreciate those niceties that money can buy,
sometimes an illness, injury or a bad diagnosis can spur us to make health and lifestyle changes that improve our health.
Don’t wait until your body crashes.
Use our financial crisis as a wakeup call to improve this physical investment that money cannot buy.
One of the greatest lessons for me, living in Greenwich, in a house without a stone gatehouse and without the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the Long Island Sound and sadly, without a heated driveway (but I do have a driveway) I admit that I’ve spent large amounts of time coveting mansions and imagining me living in them (with help, of course.) But the greatest growth for me and my state of mind is to finally be wise enough to love this house, in spite of how the Masters of the Universe live. I keep it as clean as I humanly, possibly can (which isn’t very) and I never run out of toilet paper or bananas. I take great pride in that. If we can all do the same with this physical apparataus we were born into –by keeping it in good shape, we weather-proof it so to speak, so that in stormy times we are safe and sound.
Think back to the very fittest moment of your life. Make a plan to get back to that level. Tell someone that loves you about your plan and ask them to help you. Start on Monday.

Posted by Penny | Filed Under Blog | 1 Comment