During my years abroad I noticed that it was never the peasants doing yoga, tai chi, or exercise in general. The enthusiast always seem to come from the wealthier classes. Indeed, the same is generally true in this country, though we don’t have many peasants any more. I figure the people working the hardest to support themselves and families have little need, inclination, energy or time for ‘personal growth’. I suppose we use formal exercise is a way to make life more meaningful.

Even so, I’ve noticed few folks actually able to follow a ‘private practice’ of their favorite. The meaningfulness lies more in the ideal than the real. Necessity drive action. Exercise isn’t a urgent ‘necessity’ and so we hype up our particular form as ‘the greatest’ to boost meaningfulness and rely on a ‘teacher’ or a group to get it done.

On the other hand, struggling peasants hardly need exercise to make life meaningful. Although, of course, peasants do benefit greatly from group support to ‘get life done’. So, what’s the moral of this observation? Return to being a struggling peasant? In spirit perhaps, and lifestyle too (like making do with less). That always seems to help me get life done.