Geschäftsreise29 Sep 2003

Well played. This poem made me think:

There is the classical approach where fine physique and its attainment are considered virtues - the work itself and the struggle are not masochism but something to be enjoyed.

Then there is the reluctant, desperate, reactionary, and poisonous pursuit of perfection that our society is seen to espouse.

What allowed the ancients to pursue this in a completely healthy way while it eats away at us? Or maybe they felt just as lacking as we do, and it is only historians, who seeing images of physical beauty, ascribe to them a sublime sense of the aesthetics of athleticism.