Hamsters on a Wheel
August 25, 2017
By Amy Coward
I often go to the gym at lunch like a lot of people do. There’s one about a block from my office so I don’t have the excuse of inconvenience. Plus, it gives me the chance to clear my head, work off stress and lift my spirits. And as a bonus, it’s a great place to people-watch.
Most people I see are simply escaping their offices for a bit to walk mindlessly on a treadmill or elliptical machine. Maybe ride a bike. Others are seriously trying to lift three times their body weight while on a lunch hour. (Hmmm…maybe a good appetite suppressant?)
While there are lots of people alongside me at the gym, oddly enough we’re all alone. Everyone there (myself included) has earbuds in listening to music or podcasts or television on the treadmill monitor. We’re completely immersed in a land far away while moving our bodies to fight fat, age or the sedentary lifestyle of working at a desk — like hamsters on a wheel, moving yet going nowhere.
Sometimes I want to go up to someone, knock on their head and say, “Anybody home?” Or, “How’s it going?” But those conversations are usually handled by a quick head nod, nothing more. It’s a non-verbal world, like an elevator, where we point to weights or benches we want to offer or claim. No one really wants to talk.
One of these days, I’d like to skip into the gym – literally – just to see what happens. Or sing something out loud or high-five someone just to break up the monotony and snap people out of their robotic routines.
Until I have the nerve to do that, though, I’ll just keep going through my reps and doing my time on the hamster wheel like everyone else.
And I’ll nod if you look my way.
Amy Coward is a public relations professional in Columbia, SC. When she is not managing the madness of event planning at Palmetto Health Foundation, she is turning her empty nest upside down looking for fun and finding it.
