We're really not that different

It is a scene that I would have thought was uniquely American, but apparently plays out across the globe. A large group of housewives gather in a room to step up and down to the beat of driving dance music, spurred on by an enthusiastic, effeminate man with zero percent body fat. They gather there several times weekly hoping to maintain or perhaps reclaim the body they had 10, 20 and even 30 years ago.

The women gathered can be segmented into three categories.

There are the women (like me) who gather because without a leader to tell them what to do next, they tend to quit working out whenever they become tired. These are the women who working against their natural instinct, which is to fill free time with sitting on a couch reading or writing or knitting or simply watching TV. They are here with the hopes that perhaps the next bathing suit season won't be quite as humiliating or that they can keep their bodies from turning into large doughy lumps.

Then there are the women who gather because exercise is as natural a part of their life as brushing their teeth or doing laundry. It's just something they do. They go through the motions of the class looking neither exhausted (as the first group) or euphoric (as the next group). It's simply what one does.

And then there are the addicts. These are the women who add an extra riser to their step. The ones who use heavier hand weights than everyone else. The ones who leave their steps in tact when it's time to pull out the sit-up mats because they're staying for the next class. Their bodies are in good shape, but whatever it is they are trying to exorcise by exercising must be mighty demonic indeed.

What a weird world we live in that in parts of the world women must step and sweat to work off all the food we eat and to tone our bodies that have gone slack from car riding, automated everything and too much time in front of screens, and in other parts of the world women go without food to try to make sure their children have enough to eat. I might have the time to solve this problem if I didn't have to get to my class at the gym.