>Chuck Grimes wrote:
>
> > I was half joking and half not joking about manual labor. There is
>> something elemental and fine about it. Learning how to work the body
>> against something that is completely impossible--I don't know, it's a
>> fundamental of some sort.
>
>Chuck, it is the "elemental and fine" that triggers the negative responses
>--
>especially when it is not "physical activity" but "manual labor" that you
>link it to. The desirability of a good deal of physical activity (which
>might include but CANNOT be limited to manual labor) is almost
>tautological. But the main problem with most manual labor *jobs*
>is that in fact they deprive the person of sufficient physical activity.
>Construction workers are almost classically liable to overweight
>from lack of physical activity, though they engage in a lot of manual
>labor. So also with most factory jobs. They don't offer enough
>exercise at the same time as they tire you out too much to leave
>any energy for getting physical exercise after work. (My one factory
>job, though it had its horrible aspects, did constitute aerobic
>exercise, but it was the only job in a rather large department of
>which this was true. Everyone went home bushed but under-
>exercised.
Right. My father used to jog before & after work & on days off & play baseball in a local & informal workers' baseball league; that's how he stayed slim & healthy, not by his hard work at the steel mill which caused back pain & other problems (and they continue to plague him even after his retirement). "Manual labor" & desirable sorts of "physical activity" are diametrically opposed to each other.
>I associate *PLeasure* in manual labor with those whose daily
>life is structured in such a way that manual labor constitutes
>playtime for them. Your praise (the half of it which is non-joking)
>comes very close to an attack on manual laborers.
Even "sports," when they become labor as in the case of professional athletics, are full of painful problems. Professional athletes are familiar with constant aches, injuries, etc., besides the problem that their peak years are very short. Even if you are not a professional athlete, too much athletics can damage your body, too. Moderation, Chuck, moderation! To stay healthy, you probably need one hour of physical activity per day at most.
Yoshie
P.S. I keep telling Michael Hoover to take up swimming instead of basketball, because he always complains about pains in his knees, young ones violently elbowing him on the court, etc.
P.P.S. My father wanted to study literature or become an actor when he was a young man (a handsome one, from what I can see in his old photographs). He had no money to go to college, however -- besides he had to support his asthmatic mother (= my kvetchy grandmother) after the death of his good-for-nothing father when he was still in his teens. Shortly after high school graduation, he ran away to live alone & pursue acting in a big city, but his mother & relatives tracked him down, lecturing him to discharge his filial duty: take up a responsible & well-paying job, get married, & take good care of his mother. And that's what he did. I wish he had kept running away, though.
_Not even once_ in his life has my father mentioned "the dignity of manual labor" to me & my brother. What he talked about often instead was the importance of workers' rights, social welfare, free education, etc. In his free time, he used to take me to ballets & concerts (he likes Bach & Mahler). One of his regrets in his life is that he couldn't afford a piano & private music lessons for his children. He used to say wistfully, "In the Soviet Union, all talented girls & boys are sent to special schools to study music, dance, anything -- for free!"