The Force of Inertia

An open-faced club pendulums down with a wind-splitting whistle.

A tiny white ball goes arcing through the sky.

Golfing is an amazing hobby--warm sunny days and crisp blue skies and sculpted grassy plains that stretch rolling and endless towards the horizon. Yet concealed within that enjoyable pastime lurks a far darker side.

With each swing of the club the body reverberates with attendant strain. With each impact against ball and ground, the elbow especially suffers undue stress.

"My left elbow hurts," a friend complained whilst working out at the gym. "I hurt it doing pullups."

"Probably not," I replied. "Pullups are just what revealed the underlying problem. When you've got a joint injury, what really caused the problem is either excess tension or weakness in a surrounding joint."

After talking him through the problem I diagnosed the injury in full. "What underlies the issue is a pronated shoulder. It puts the elbow under excess strain during impact-related activities. And what caused the problem was golfing."

Turns out he golfs twice-weekly or more throughout the summer. Turns out he's been doing this for years.

And throughout all endeavor, because of a stiff shoulder, impact-related stress slowly but inevitably mangled the joint structure of his elbow.

"What you should do is stop golfing and let yourself heal. You should stretch the shoulder and restore proper mobility. Because right now, every time you hit a ball or kick up a divot you're only making the problem worse."

Yet that he didn't want to hear. And that he had no intentions of doing.

He golfs. His friends golf. And that weekly ritual had become such an intrinsic part of his identity that he couldn't imagine giving it up.

So instead of healing, he's destroying his body further.

Instead of recovering, he's putting himself through more pain.

Inertia is a powerful force in our lives that can compel us towards destinations desirous or unwanted. It can suction us in the direction of futures benevolent or foul.

And once it begins exerting psychic compulsion upon the mind, it swift becomes a force near-impossible to resist.

After having that conversation with my friend--after reaching the disappointing conclusion that he loved hitting a little white ball more than having an arm that bent without pain--I started analyzing my own life for the presence of inertia-fueled inevitabilities. I started searching for ways the force of inertia might be leading me astray.

And I think we should all do the same.

Take a look at your life and see what psychically compels you. Ascertain the habits you have programmed into your mind, and determine whether they're pulling you towards the safe harbors of good health and benevolent deeds--or whether they're casting you adrift on the sharp points of rocky shoals involving self-destructive behaviors and malevolent acts.

Start tapering back those habits leading towards unproductive routes. Start destroying those inertia-fueled habits today.

Then in ten, twenty, thirty years, your body will be healthy, your mind will be benevolent--

And you'll never need wonder why your elbow hurts in the gym.

a reply to: Trachel

You could always order that he wears this:



I guarantee he'll quit golfing then.



Seriously though: don't be too judgemental on other people's choice. A wise man once said,

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming,
'Wow! What a Ride!'"

The body is but a vehicle to carry out our achievements. Nothing less, nothing more.

We waste so much more than a stuck shoulder with our habits and inertia.
Funny how we fool ourselves in so many creative ways.
Hours of inertia in front of TV, or computer, little unhealthy habits that we can't just give up, ughh, story of my life lately. No real motivation for change. Just another Monday, just another week, i'll change something maybe next Monday...
They say habits are the most difficult to change, we are creatures of habit.
Anyone has a good technique to overcome inertia?

Lucid, but moot. Gravity gets us all in the end. I lets my pendulum swing.

a reply to: WhiteHat

Its Saturday.

originally posted by: WhiteHat
We waste so much more than a stuck shoulder with our habits and inertia.
Funny how we fool ourselves in so many creative ways.
Hours of inertia in front of TV, or computer, little unhealthy habits that we can't just give up, ughh, story of my life lately. No real motivation for change. Just another Monday, just another week, i'll change something maybe next Monday...
They say habits are the most difficult to change, we are creatures of habit.
Anyone has a good technique to overcome inertia?

Too true and well said.

For me the only thing that overcomes inertia is persistence in desiring change. Day by day I etch away at that unwanted habit until I erode it from the neurological structure of the mind.

It's a process that can take weeks, months, years... but in the end it usually works.

Meditation also helps me focus on what really matters--which is usually removing those parts of me I can do without.

originally posted by: swanne
The body is but a vehicle to carry out our achievements. Nothing less, nothing more.

True statement--great point.

And that raises another interesting question: Our bodies are ours (or ostensibly on loan from higher powers). So how far should our responsibility extend towards modifying/adjusting our behaviors to care for our physical forms?

Personally I believe in karmic reciprocation. I think that if you take super good care of the body you have, the universe will be far more inclined to provide you with a better body for subsequent incarnations. To that end I eat a (mostly) organic diet and exercise fairly regularly.

Conversely, if you abuse it with drugs/alcohol/sloth/indifference, your chances of getting another good body for later reincarnations are much less. The universe won't want waste its energy giving you something great you'll just destroy through neglect.

Sadly, in this case, I'm of the opinion that my friend is abusing his body by (1) continuing to golf without taking proper remedial action (stretching of the shoulder, resting of the elbow), (2) disregarding the health of his form by lacking discipline enough to stop crippling it.

Right now he's got a reasonably good form for this incarnation. He's athletic, has good biochemistry, and is an objectively decent-looking guy.

But unfortunately, because of his lifestyle choices (this is just one small example), I don't think the universe will be handing him a body like that again anytime soon.

So while I do care about his elbow, I care much more about his future lives.