The end of the world, apparently. I don't know what else explains the heat, the general world climate, and the doings of all the loonies in the world. Here's a question: why don't we give control of all nuclear weapons in the world to the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu? Imagine that, if the sanest people in the world had their fingers on the button instead of the most insane? If no one could start a war or launch a freaking missile within getting the go-ahead from these two guys first? Maybe there's another one or two that fit into their category, but I can't think at the moment of who that would be. Maybe we let the Secretary General of the U.N. in as a courtesy, although so far I'm not impressed by this one. I can't remember who it was before him, but I remember hearing the name U Thant rather endlessly when I was a child, when there were missile crises and such going on.
I'm sure I've mentioned before my fascination with the concept of the multiple intelligences. In essence, the theory says that ability in math and science, which schools traditionally use to determine who is or isn't "smart" is just one way in which people manifest their intelligence. There are seven distinct kinds of intelligence (I think there's another one now, but I can't remember what it is); generally, people have all of them in varying degrees. They are
- Verbal and linguistic intelligence
- Mathematical and logical intelligence
- Understanding of nature and the natural world
- Visual and spatial intelligence
- Kinesthetic/Body-based intelligence
- Musical/Auditory intelligence
- Interpersonal (Getting along with other people) intelligence
- Intrapersonal (Knowing yourself) intelligence
For example, Michael Jordan is -- or was in his prime -- supremely gifted with Kinesthetic/Body intelligence, making him a genius, if you want to look at it that way. Artists have a higher degree of visual/spatial intelligence. And so on.
I've taken little tests to see where I stand. I've got a lot of verbal/linguistic, and some logical (but not math.) I've got some inter- and intra-. And that's it. I have virtually no natural, musical, or kinesthetic intelligence. I'm not surprised, mind you; all the experiences of my life have made this pretty apparent.
Which is all to say that now that I'm doing the home walking video again, I had to check in this diet/exercise log site that I'm using to see how to count the calories I burn. Turns out it's classified as light aerobic activity. Now, I did this stuff for months last year, and it never occurred to me for even a minute that I was doing aerobics, although now I can see that's exactly what it is.
When it comes to kinesthetic intelligence, I am the dumbest of the dumb. Like every gym teacher I ever had couldn't have told me that.
Btw, I am keeping within my goal calorie range for the day and drinking, believe it or not, more than the 64 oz of water that seems to be the holy grail of fitness folk. The result is pretty much what you would expect. Despite, then, having no particular intelligence of nature, you can be sure that it's been calling to me pretty regularly all day. And away we go.
