Exercise!

I definitely don't consider myself to be an athlete by any means, but I like to think of myself as a moderately active person. I like hiking, and I opt to walk places if I have the chance to do so. I go to the gym about three times a week, and when I'm there I usually run around three miles on the treadmill. I have run a few five mile stints before, but that's about as far as I have run - not necessarily because I'm tired (I get a euphoric high after running for a mile or two), but because I don't have more time in my day to dedicate to running. Plus, admittedly, I also get a little bored after running for a long time.

I like exercise. I like the way I feel when I exercise, because I feel alive with my heart racing and my sweat glands working. I also like how I not only feel physically alive, but mentally alive when I do yoga or a dance class: it's almost like I can feel both sides of my brain working, as I try to physically mimic the poses or moves that the instructor shows. Every time I leave a yoga or a dance class, I'm always struck with how I feel very alert.

For that reason, this article about the mental benefits of exercise really resonated with me. My memory, mind, and mental well-being are so important to me, and I really like thinking about how exercise can help me to stay mentally sharp and aware. This article also makes me think of J's sharp grandparents, who walked around their city and up the hill to the local university on a regular basis. Grandma P lived into her nineties, and Grandpa P is still alive (at ninety-six, I believe) and rides a bike for his regular transportation!

I hope I can encourage my children to develop healthy exercise habits and hopefully find a love of exercise. Sam doesn't like competitive sports, but he does enjoy swimming and likes going to his swim lessons. Lucy likes going to her ballet class, which is a good start! I'd love it if one of my kids ends up liking basketball, baseball, or volleyball, because it would be fun to play with them. But if they don't, that's okay too. I just want them to be healthy, more than anything else.

J understands the importance of exercising, but he doesn't get any type of adrenaline rush when he works out. (I wonder if he may have a lower lower levels of dopamine in his body). J still exercises though, and recently discovered that he really enjoys rowing. Earlier this fall, he took a rowing class that would practice on Lake Washington. It's too cold to go out on the water now, but he still uses the rowing machines at the gym and actually gets fairly good PR times. I really enjoy seeing him get excited about this sport.

Post-Election Thoughts

I didn't sleep well last night, after learning that Trump was going to be elected president. I'm so disheartened and depressed that America has fallen so far away from its mark, and that power is invested in someone as dangerous and unpredictable as Trump.

A few weeks ago I came across this interview in the David Soutier, a retired Supreme Justice Court judge. His perspective and historical-approach to looking at American politics resonated with me (starting about 1:37 at the clip below).



I worry about the same things that Soutier worries about. Knowledge is such an important thing to me, and I worry about how ignorance is going to affect America. And, given that this morning I just finished teaching a class on political propaganda in Roman portraiture (using Augustus of Prima Porta as an example), Soutier's discussion of Augustus and the fall of the Roman Republic is especially poignant to me.

My hope is in the young people of America (see voting results for my age demographic). I hope that we can be civically engaged in order to combat fascism, tyranny, intimidation, xenophobia, racism, and misogyny. I like that Hillary Clinton said in her concession speech that we need to place faith in the constitution and in the basic human rights that are outlined therein. I think these next four years will really show if the constitution and the unique setup of the American government (with its various branches and institutions) will actually do their job: to prevent authoritarianism and protect the rights of the people.

Celebrities Project: Marilyn Monroe

I finished my Marilyn Monroe Month (as part of my Celebrities Project) several weeks ago, but I haven't had the motivation to write a recap of my experience here. The truth is, it was terribly depressing to learn about Monroe. What a sad life she led! She never really had a loving home when she was growing up: her mother was mentally unstable and Norma Jean Baker was passed around between foster homes until she was essentially placed in her first marriage by her foster parents. Really, it seems like Marilyn didn't really have close friends throughout her life. She was always surrounded by people, but many of those people didn't care about her as an individual.

I started off by reading My Story by Marilyn Monroe (with Ben Hecht). This autobiography was written only up to a point: the manuscript stops abruptly just after Marilyn goes on her honeymoon with her second husband, Joe DiMaggio. The abrupt ending was fitting in a way, since Marilyn's life also ended so abruptly.

In some ways, it was nice to pair this autobiography with Anthony Summer's book Goddess: The Secret Lives of Marilyn Monroe. Although this book was interminably long and repetitive, I did like that Summers tried to help distinguish what was fiction and fact in Marilyn's My Story. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this dramatic actress had the propensity to embellish and exaggerate events of her life. The book's main argument is that Marilyn actually didn't commit suicide, but that she may have wrongfully died due to her compromising affairs with the Kennedy brothers (specifically Robert). There are a lot of suspicious things about the circumstances of her death, including the fact that she was discovered with a phone received clenched in her hand (which typically would not happen if someone had overdosed on sleeping pills, which prompts the hand muscles to relax and drop things before rigor mortis sets in). Regardless of what really happened, it is certain that she had a sad ending to her life: she was mentally and emotionally unstable during the last months of her life, and didn't get the help that she needed to overcome her addictions and problems.

I obviously picked the wrong movies to watch, too. I decided to skip watching the shows that I have already seen and enjoyed, so I didn't see shows like How To Marry a Millionaire (I really love her comedic timing in this show), Gentlemen Prefer Blondes or The Seven Year Itch. Instead, I saw Monkey Business (1952) with Cary Grant, in which Monroe plays a secretary that gets involved with a scientist who has discovered a formula which makes people youthful. The film was okay, but it was a little too silly and long, and I didn't think Monroe's comedic timing was that great in this show.

I also saw The Misfits (1961), in which Monroe plays opposite Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift. This movie was really slow paced and not that interesting for the most part, except for one scene at the end of the movie (at 2:16 - 2:21 in this online video). Seeing Marilyn get so upset and scream so loud was so unexpected for me that it was really poignant. It was also interesting to just know that this movie was written by Arthur Miller (Marilyn's third husband, although their marriage was breaking down at the time this was filmed). Marilyn also had an obsession with Cary Grant (she imagined that her estranged father looked like Cary Grant), and so it was interesting to see them play together. Cary Grant died soon after this film was completed.

The movie that was most interesting to watch was the unfinished film of Something's Got to Give (1962) with Dean Martin. This was the last movie that Marilyn started to make before she died, and she was so unstable and unprofessional that she ended up getting fired from the set. She looks unhealthily skinny to me in this film, but perhaps I also had that reaction because I knew of all of the problems she was experiencing with insomnia and alcohol at the time. There are some funny moments in this unfinished film, though, and I did like to see Dean and Marilyn play opposite each other.

I'm realizing in this Celebrities Project that I don't personally connect with many of these celebrity figures, including Monroe. I guess I must have hoped to connect with these figures more, which is perhaps why I've been a little disappointed with the people that I have been studying lately. I do like that Marilyn Moroe loved learning (even though she didn't have the best formal education herself); I enjoyed discovering that she decided to take a university-level art appreciation class 1951, after she decided that she wanted to be more cultured. I also like that she collected art and loved to read. But beyond those points, it was hard to connect with someone who lived so out-of-touch with reality and who desperately craved attention. I'm just not that kind of person!

UPDATE 4/24/22: Someone on Twitter posted this picture of a rose that was painted by Marilyn Monroe in 1962. It is fun to know that she was interested in making art on her own: