Tag: annoyances

Gym rats

I finished my workout and went to the locker room only to find water all over the floor around my locker.  Now, the showers are all individual, with plenty of space for drying off.  And, of course, one can easily dry off next to the pool before entering the locker room.  Yet, someone had chosen not to do one or the other, thus creating a risk of wet socks, if not slipping and falling while dressing.   Fortunately, I’ve encountered this only two or three times.

More frequently, though, I find that someone or another has used the small bench in the area as their own storage area.   Some (too many) guys spread their personal stuff out more than necessary in the limited space.  Some leave their bags on the bench while they go out and exercise.  Maybe also a towel.   There’s one bench in each of three areas.  There are 2-3 dozen lockers in each area.  The bench would hold maybe six of us if we were just sitting there watching TV, fewer if we’re putting on socks and shoes.   Sometimes (too often), someone finishing up after a workout spreads their own belongings out over half or more of the bench.

I used to stuff my bag into my locker while exercising, but after observing a few intelligent, thoughtful souls putting theirs on top of their locker, I started doing the same.  Then I keep it on the floor in front of my locker while getting showered and dressed.  I especially enjoy doing this when someone else is there spread across the bench. 

I rarely see someone using a machine for more than the 30-minute limit.  I don’t think many ever do so, and when I have seen it, it hasn’t been a problem because there are other machines available.  Yet there was at least one person at one point who abused an exercise table.  That may not be the proper name for it, but I’m talking about a knee-high, padded table on which one can do exercises for which you need to lie down.  The table is far preferable to a mat on the floor for those of us who can’t easily arise from the floor.  Some time ago, there was a person who would stand on the table to do standing exercises.  Why didn’t they just stand on the floor instead of leaving dirt, smudges and streaks from their shoes?  (They also didn’t clean after use, as most people do.)

One other locker-room problem is those who do not turn water off in sinks or showers.  I hesitate to mention this, because I did so once on Facebook and was censured by several people who, I’m pretty sure, generally opt in favor of preserving natural resources.   The critics wanted me to give the water-wasters a pass because they are old and probably couldn’t hear the water continuing to drip or run.  I countered, rightfully, that I am hearing impaired and still often hear these problems.  But, more than that, one can look and see if they turned the water all the way off.  I think it’s a matter of the all-too-common problem of individuals just not making much effort to be aware of what’s going on around them.   

Let me add, I’m not talking only about drips.  Too often, mostly in the showers, it’s a steady stream.  Sometimes it’s even a full, albeit light, shower spray.  And it’s almost always hot water, thus wasting the electricity or gas that heats the water, as well as the water itself.  

People I encounter at the gym, for the most part, range from “not-a-problem-to be-around” to “enjoyable-to-be-around.”  Sometimes, however, there are those who, at least in certain situations, drift into “problem-to-be-around” territory.  Fortunately, these make up a miniscule minority.

Forgiveness — the next step

Some months ago, I wrote on post on “Forgiveness,” a topic with which I’ve continually struggled, despite my upbringing and professional training.   I consulted more resource material than I have when writing any other blog post.  Probably more than I’ve used writing anything since graduate school.  (And I listed them at the end of the essay.) 

After some didactic paragraphs, I shifted to some personal reflections.  I picked up on the point made by many experts that when we hang on to past hurts, it’s like “drinking of the poison that you intend for the other person.”  Forgiving them – whether they care or even know – can have a positive effect on our health and peace of mind.   I shared:

I am finding it helpful to identify the anger I feel about certain occurrences. In reflecting on past hurts that linger, I am starting to realize, “Oh, that’s someone I need to forgive.”   I am working toward the next step: in fact forgiving them.

Among the places I’ve identified anger, in varying degrees, are some of my blog posts.  I’ve started owning that anger, but the step between “Oh, that’s someone I need to forgive” and “I forgive you” is by no means a small one.   Still, I’m going to give it a try, even if it is, at best, akin to “faking it till you make it.” 

I wrote in one post about an intense summer in which the negative experiences outweighed the positive ones, and the “highest highs weren’t as high as our lowest lows were low.”  One reason for writing about it was to try to confront and deal with negative feelings that have stayed with me.  Now, to those who played a part in nurturing those feelings, I say, I forgive you. 

There’s a post about a job interview experience that wasn’t handled well and another about how not to be a good house guest.  To the people whose actions I described in both, I forgive you.

 An honest reading of other posts has revealed traces of anger: some comments I reported in two posts about grammar and in another about a play, two people whose misunderstandings of my attempts to be innovative in my ministry amounted to putdowns, unhelpful people running “service” stations, and other complaints buried in some posts though tangential to the subject.  That totals quite a few people.  One by one, I forgive you.

Again, I am not offering forgiveness to try to make myself look better but rather to help myself feel better.

Here’s one with which to wrap up.  I wrote one post about being “ghosted” – i.e., having people with whom you’d been close suddenly disappear from your life. This one also includes resource material describing the phenomenon and offering ways to deal with it.  I interspersed fictionalized examples.  While it is, by definition, unlikely anyone who inspired these examples will ever read my blog, I am saying here to five specific people: I miss you, but I forgive you.

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Postscript: I don’t doubt that various rants will creep into some future posts.  I’ll try to be aware of new opportunities for forgiveness.