Reality Bites: Wild Imagination Needed

I’m re-reading The Art of Travel by Alain De Botton. Yup, I love it so much I’m reading it twice. The book waxes philosophical (and does it beautifully) about travel but really, how we choose to travel is – many times – a reflection of how we choose to live life. So much of what he says can be applied to life and since we’re here in my blog, to my pursuit of rock-hard killer thighs.

In the chapter ‘On Anticipation’, De Botton talks about the seductive powers of a picture, “Projects (and even whole lives) might be influenced by the simplest and most unexamined images of happiness … a lengthy and ruinously expensive journey might be set into motion by nothing more than the sight of a photograph of a palm tree gently inclining in a tropical breeze.”

That’s so true! I mean, how did I get into hiking? By looking at pictures la.

Look at that! How can you not totally fall in love? (Mall rats need not respond).

So magical. Like a fairy just danced through, casting a mysterious mist.

The air is cool. Carpet of soft mossy grass. Clear cascading waterfall.

And if you go far in enough, there are fairies and pixies and elves!

But the reality of a rainforest – as anyone who’s ever been in a real rainforest can tell you – is far from Strawberry Shortcake Fairy Dust Land. “In [photographs] we find the process of simplification or selection at work as in the imagination. Severe abbreviations of what reality will force upon us.”

There. That’s reality. It’s a pic from my Death By Hiking entry and I can say with all honesty that it was NOT Strawberry Shortcake Fairy Dust Land.

Truckloads of blood-sucking leeches, some that hang off trees, hop into your clothes and shimmy down your back. Vicious mosquitoes attack full-on. Air is thick and muggy. You’re falling into holes. You’re slushing around in bright orange mud as slick as cream. Then it rains.

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Just like hiking, I got into this whole running thing cos I spent all my time looking at pictures like this.

So much grace. Long strides. Nice lean legs. Effortless. Smile on face. Bliss. Steady breathing. Energetic. Heart robust. Rhythmic pumping. Body glistening with a light layer of perspiration. Cheeks flushed pink.

But in reality, things are a bit different. Not bad. Just different.

First, you battle crazy-ass traffic to get to the park. Then, you fight with a bunch of people (who’ve also been seduced by the same picture, btw) for a parking spot. Got no space, so you double-park. Then, somebody gives you the finger. Then, you need to pee, so you walk to the loo (which is usually very far away) and then back.

You start to run. You get stuck behind a woman in Lycra ultra-mini-shorts and spend a few minutes hypnotised by the way her cellulite-ridden thighs are chafing viciously against each other. You come to your senses and run past her. You wind up behind an old Ah Pek, but this Ah Pek is not just any Ah Pek. He is the Super-Fit Ah Pek who runs past you three times before you even finish your first round. You feel a bit depressed.

After a while, you start to feel tired. Calves kinda sore. Then you realise you forgot to programme your ipod properly, so now it’s playing Enrique Iglesias’s whole album. Omg. You try to skip it but your ipod hangs. Then your pants ride up your butt. Then you need to pee. Again.

Then images of your boss invade your mind. You remember all the stuff you were supposed to do last week but didn’t (cos you decided, oh screw it). Then you remember omg, today is Sunday and tomorrow is Monday. Oh god, oh god, oh god. Then you stress and your leg kena cramp.

Then, your shoelaces become untied. Then, you bend down to tie them and you’re reminded of the jelly belly hanging around your waist. You become even more depressed. How come run so much still so goddamn fat??!!

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“The imagination could provide a more-than-adequate substitute for the vulgar reality of actual experience,” writes French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans in Against The Grain. Yeah, tell me about it.

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I’ve now come to the end of this entry. And the point of this entry is … sure, reality almost never lives up to the pictures we see and the ones we draw in our minds, but that’s life. That’s why we have things like imagination, denial, self-inflicted amnesia, insanity and above all, a healthy sense of humour.

So just keep on doing whatever it is you’re doing, keep looking at nice pictures and remember that – should all else fail – there’s nothing a wild, candy-coated imagination can’t help make better.