Chapter 110

This time I did my tai chi outside, in a square in the middle of my apartment complex. The dog was either chilling by my side or chasing birds.

I rode to work and relaxed in the office for a bit, browsing the internet. I stumbled upon a Facebook page called “Organisation structurelle coconstruite de lo praticienxe réflexixe”, which is pure gibberish, likely in reference to the unscrutable jargon present in so many professions. The anonymous author(s) of the page managed to get a pretty strong following with a collection of pretty funny memes about the lives of healthcare practitioners, poking fun at all the shit they have to go through in their difficult and ungrateful field or work. I liked the dark humor and somewhat self-deprecating nature of the memes, but one thing that kept hitting me is how they constantly shit on the idea of “self-care”, for instance, they would take a screenshot from a government publication suggesting to eat healthy and exercise in order to alleviate depression, and add a very sarcastic image macro with the caption “OH WOW IF ONLY IT WAS THAT SIMPLE, THANKS CAPTAIN OBVIOUS”. That is something that’s been on my mind for quite a while now, and the topic of one conversation I had with a capoeirista in Shanghai a few days ago, who teaches "holistic healing" courses, whatever this is. On one hand I think it’s very nice that mental illnesses are getting destigmatized and approached from different angles, and I’m never going to suggest that “just man up” or “stop being a bitch” is the solution to end all. But it’s also undeniable that the epidemic of depression and apathy and all sorts of mental problems experienced by people from my generation has a serious correlation with shitty life habits, narcissism, poor work ethic and lack of a sense of perspective. Some people are clinically depressed, with a very bad chemical imbalance in their brain, and yeah, I get it, telling them to go take a walk in the forest might sound condescending. But if someone is depressed and eats like a hippo, smokes tremendous amounts of weed, surrounds himself with toxic shitheads, has a “woe is me, the government/my family/systemic racism/patriarchy/Godzilla causes all my problems” defeatist attitude and lives in apathetic squalor, well, maybe a bit of life hygiene is in order, or even a good kick in the ass.

I had a review period with the twelfth-graders, I went over electrochemistry questions, a subject I hadn’t taught for a while so I had to prep a bit beforehand. I got home, ate the leftover R. n’ S., a handful of strawberries, and a mango. Then my afternoon was quite uneventful, a lab and then a review period with Attitude Class. I was running a bit late, and went to refill my tea bottle after the bell rang, as the students were copying some info I put on the projector. But then I saw that many of my colleagues were not even in class yet, and were slowly walking there. The level of give-a-shit is pretty low now for everyone involved, most of us finished the curriculum a long time ago and are just killing time now, even all the reviewing we’re doing is unlikely to change the outcome, capable students would do well on the exam if it was tomorrow, and some of the weak or lazy one would flunk even if they had a million hours to prepare. I still do my thing, slowly going over past paper questions and explaining some points that need further exploration.

I went home and put myself through a pretty comprehensive calisthenics workout: L-hangs, tucked planches (I suck terribly at those), chin-ups with two liter-bottles of beer in a backpack, pike push-ups, step-ups holding a big kettlebell, calf raises, asymmetric push-ups, rows holding straps hanging from the pull-up bar, curls with a kettlebell, bodyweight triceps extensions, hollow body holds, and reverse hypers. Only two or three more of those workouts and I’ll look like a Calvin Klein model. The soundtrack to this was a succession of mixtapes by Canibus, Army Of The Pharaohs and Immortal Technique, all excellent underground rappers. I put it at low volume because the girlfriend was in the bedroom, teaching an online class.

I took a cold shower and then took the dog out. I sat on the plaza with a Czech pilsner I picked up at the craft beer bar, enjoying the post-workout glow, the pleasant spring weather and the enhanced beer buzz. The girlfriend asked me to buy strawberries, so I went to the front gate to get some, then I got home and fixed myself dinner, a pulled pork sandwich, coleslaw and hash browns. I watched the first episode of a BBC series called The Serpent, about the life and crimes of Charles Sobhraj, a Frenchman who killed a bunch of hippies in the 1970s while living in Bangkok. So far it’s pretty good. I also watched a documentary about the Hundred Years War, it started pretty damn dismally for the French but now they were getting a second wind, thanks notably to a badass Breton knight and commander named Bertrand Du Guesclin.