6:15 a.m. Monday. Wispy clouds are turning cantaloupe orange over the clock tower of Howard University. Small clusters of people are gathering at the bus stop. The neighborhood dogs are just beginning to test their morning vocal chords, and the newspaper truck rumbles down the street distributing bundled Posts.
Cardozo High, its halls yet quiet, dominates the hill overlooking a panoramic view of the Capitol, the Washington Monument, and the green dome of St. Matthew's Cathedral. The oval track behind the school glistens in the morning light as pale rays pick up the aluminum cans and tiny bits of glass strewn on its gritty, gray surface. Four figures in frayed sweatshirts are plodding methodically around its circumference. Once. Twice. Three times. Four times. The early shift of the Sojourners exercise bunch is doing its thing.
Getting enough exercise is difficult enough when one lives in a community whose life seems glued together by meetings; but when that community is also located in the city, staying fit becomes a matter of literally bending over backwards to get opportunities for exercise. Mornings and afternoons filled with caring for children, helping tenants to organize, or putting out a magazine, followed by evenings spent cooking bean tacos for 10, capped off by a community meeting at night, can put a cramp in any exercise style. Not to mention the fact that doing jumping jacks in the living room may disturb the person who just sat down to read a Henri Nouwen article on contemplative prayer.
One community member has resorted to burning the midnight exercise oil, doing sit-ups and kneebends in the pallid blue glow of late-night T.V. Others momentarily throw their peace witness to the wind and squeeze out 10 minutes a day to run through the Canadian Air Force physical fitness program.
In fact, the modes of exercise and motivations for pursuing it span a range fully as wide as the arc of a well-served volleyball. Some prefer the contemplative spirit provided by long-distance running as opposed to the shorter morning jog; during lunch hour, two of our tenant organizers puff in breathless fellowship for five or six miles along neighborhood streets and through the National Zoo.
Sports that some of us grew up taking for granted, or developed a taste for in college, have been eliminated by the circumstances in which our commitments have placed us: City streets are lousy for racquetball, and the ski slopes we see are well out of reach on posters in downtown travel offices.
Furthermore, living in a neighborhood of people for whom exercise such as jogging or tennis is an unthought-of diversion raises questions about its class and cultural characteristics. Yet we recognize the importance of relaxation and physical discipline in our life. After all, taking care of our bodies does show that we respect what God has given us to walk around in. But certainly proximity to the poor and a simple lifestyle have affected our modes and means of staying healthy.
Many who work at the community office, peace ministry, and magazine make a point of walking to and from work; these offices share a building about a mile and a half from our homes. After reaching work, some enthusiasts are still not capable of sitting all day hunched over a desk. The noon hour usually finds them doing dance exercises and yoga in a remote corner of the building. And the community has its share of rope jumpers, bicyclists, and a tenacious tennis player or two willing to get up at dawn to find space on the court.
Any impression that Sojourners meets the summer with Olympic-level fitness, however, is quickly dispelled by being around the day after our annual Memorial Day picnic. When warm weather descends on the city, communal exercise breaks forth with much perspiration, followed by many an aching muscle and groan.
Retreats, household vacations, and picnics are times for playing together and sometimes gaining new insights about community life. During one memorable volleyball game, the ball dropped between two team members as each one assumed the other would go for it. "Why didn't you yell for it or something?" their disappointed team members asked one of them. "I've been in community so long I've forgotten how to say 'mine' " was the reply.
Sprawling on the grass after such a day of vigorous play, feeling wonderfully spent and relaxed before the aches begin to settle in, it may be easy to affirm Paul's words to the Corinthians to the effect that our bodies are the temples of God's Spirit.
But 6:15 the next morning comes all too quickly; and as the Sojourners exercise vanguard jogs off into the sunrise, thoughts will without doubt be unpoetically fixed on sore shoulders and the prospect of a hot shower and a bowl of granola.
Lindsay Dubs McLaughlin was on the editorial staff at Sojourners when this article appeared.
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