The YMCA triangle is one of the world's best known logos. The one I grew up with, the one my dad, a fifty-year employee of the "Y," used on my birth announcement, contained three words that illuminated the arc of my childhood: Spirit, Mind, Body. 

   At first, the" spirit" was amorphous & the "mind" was boring. I could "see" the body & my dad was obsessed about keeping his (& mine) in shape. He had me doing calisthenics at three & did them himself into his late '80s. 

   My 105-year-old mom says her "secret" is genetics. Dad did not receive that break. Instead, his rigorous regimen enabled age 90 & kept him clear-headed until his last moments. 

  The picture (left) was taken about 1924. The one (right) in 1931. By then, Dad was a master swimmer, an AAU gymnast & a college boxing champion. 

   But, he would be the first to say that fitness is the balance of spirit, mind & body, not physical health alone. He would mourn the fitness levels of most caregivers.

   Health professionals know that physical fitness nurtures energy. But they often complain they do not have time for exercise.

   Dad, attending college & paying for it with night shift work at the Miller Rubber Company, did not have time either. So he shadow-boxed in the freight elevator, lifted boxes for fitness as well as work & walked whenever he could instead of riding.

   Most of us could take the stairs instead of the elevator, walk from the furthest spot in the parking lot instead of fighting for the closest one & tone muscles by lifting the grocery bag up & down ten times. We could walk (or run) with the dog for thirty minutes instead of five. 

Forty percent of Americans nap after Thanksgiving turkey. What if they took a 30 minute walk instead &, along the way, considered their fitness balance? How would your life change if you took one of those walks every day?

-Erie D. Chapman, III

Photos: Erie D. Chapman, Jr., circa 1924 & 1931.