Right now I’m in the midst of studying for comprehensive
exams for my master of English degree. As you can imagine, this involves plenty
of reading, note-taking, and reflection. The semester will be one long mental
workout, in a way. But it is important to me, critical, that I keep up with my
physical exercise. Once a week, the weight room at my university is a refuge I
cherish. Every other day or so, I walk around my neighborhood, in the park or
along the lake. I have a handful of workout DVDs I rotate through. And so on.
There are those who exercise more than me and keep their
lives in better order, but I still want to add my voice and example to the view
many have expressed before about the value of mind-body balance. I am
surrounded in my current situation by academic types: professors, graduate
students, researchers, librarians, and administrators. Some of them maintain
exercise routines, but there is a contrary mindset shared by others in academia
that dismisses or even scorns such practices. This attitude elevates mental
achievements above physical ones. “People with an average IQ can worry about
their resting heart rate. I have more important lines of inquiry to pursue.”
Thomas Jefferson may be the ideal role model for someone
like me, trying to find balance between the life of the mind and a physical
vitality, and seeking reassurance that a true scholar can attend to both. Among
other roles, Jefferson is famous as a statesman, writer, and bibliophile. In
1815, he wrote to John Adams, “I cannot live without books,” and indeed he read
and collected a prodigious amount of books in his lifetime.1
Yet by no means did Jefferson care only for books, reading,
and writing. In some of his letters, he linked physical and mental health:
"If the body be feeble, the
mind will not be strong. The sovereign invigorator of the body is exercise, and
of all the exercises walking is best.” (1786 letter to Thomas Mann Randolph)
“Give about two [hours] every day
to exercise; for health must not be sacrificed to learning. A strong body makes
the mind strong." (1789 letter to Peter Carr)
Sculpture by Donald De Lue; Image source
covertress.blogspot.com
In another, he actually placed the physical health gained
through exercise above academic achievements:
"...leaving all the afternoon
for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading; I will rather
say more necessary, because health is worth more than learning." (1790
letter to John Garland Jefferson)
Scholars disinclined to exercise might argue that as long as
they are in basically good physical health, it doesn’t matter if they exercise
or not. Or they might argue that physical health is worth sacrificing for the
advancement of knowledge. To either argument, I take Jefferson’s position that regular
exercise is very likely, if not quite guaranteed, to produce better academic
work.2 Even were this not the case, walking in the shadows of trees,
stretching fingertips to toes, picking up heavy objects, and all manner of like
things are valuable just for what they are and how they make the body feel.
1. All quotations are from monticello.org.
2. For scientific support,
one place to start is the website
of John Ratey, author of Spark: The
Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain.
