It's cool by the Pool - right? [COLUMN]

I'd like to believe that I am an actualist. And one example of me actualising myself in my own realistic 'scenario' was completing the 2005 Ironman. It's not what you think. It wasn't a great triumph in the sense of training the body to a point of super-fitness. That was a part of the equation until I became sick with a few weeks to go. Then 'being realistic' about one's chances meant seeking a minimum level of success. A 'minimum level of success' might sound like giving in, like a hopeless state. Well, that depends on the resources and one's objective chances to begin with, doesn't it?

I am sure we can all disagree on our propects and resources, and this lack of consensus provides an excuse for those who are too lazy or self indulgent to remain lazy and self-indulgent. The opposite of these of course is discipline, and it is not difficult to see how lacking in that we are. Go outside your front door and try to find a fat person. Let's not muck about. Someone who is excessively fat is not moving their body around as mkuch as they need to. They are a health risk even to themselves;and the primarily health risk starts in the way in which they think; in their emotional response to pain, to work, to discipline.

There are times when I believe our abundance and our brilliance may not exaggerate but ameliorate our problems. I wonder, at times, what effect the internet might have in reducing our dependence on systems that we may no longer easily afford - such as postal networks, telephones and ordinary entertainment.

Whatever the answer, tonight, while the first black American president in history was inaugurated, I went to watch a movie called Despereaux, about a small mouse who does not know how to cower in fear and as a result is thrown out of Mouseworld. Ironically enough, this sentiment was the main thrust of Obama's inauguration speech:
'choose hope/courage over fear'.

There will be much to fear, and much to concern ourselves with in 2009 and after. It will be a test of our private and collective discipline whether we can hold ourselves together as one nation after another is tested and tested again. We will see that it is not cool by the pool, not even close. Whether we can keep our cool while temperatures rise around us, is really the question.