The Citizen, 2006-03-30, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MARCH 30, 2006. PAGE 5.
The upright rowing machine did not
work out. I had high hopes when I
installed it in a corner of the bedroom
two years ago.
Here was the solution to my exercise
problem, I told myself. Just a few minutes a
day in the comfort of my home and I would at
last earn those masculine accoutrements
(rippling biceps, thighs like locomotive
pistons and a rack of rock-hard abs you could
smash walnuts on) that have eluded me since -
well, forever, actually.
For two weeks I used the machine
religiously, every other day. But then
something came up. A business trip perhaps,
or maybe it was a writing deadline.
In any case I fell out of the rhythm. One day
I hung my warmup jacket on the handlebars. It
was still there four months later.
This year when Fitness Guilt descended
again I started pricing other kinds of exercise
machines. But the major problem with
machines is they're so...mechanical. No soul.
Walking your buns off and getting nowhere on
a treadmill is too much like real life.
The Nautilus? I get stomach cramps just
looking at it. And sitting on a stationary bike
spinning my wheels reminds me of that
afternoon I spent stuck in a snowbank outside
Sioux Lookout.
In the end I decided to Go Hollywood and
hire myself a personal trainer. Two, actually -
a guy and a gal, just to ensure my physical
prowess wasn't too gender-specific.
Like all good personal trainers mine have a
bit of a Nazi complex. They're incorruptible.
Finished your breakfast? Gut. Ve vill
eggzerzize NOW. Not after you read the
paper/finish your coffee/check your e-mail.
NOW.
Premier Dalton McGuinty is learning that
when he offends religious groups, they
don't necessarily turn the other cheek.
Jewish organizations have responded bluntly
the Liberal premier has insulted them,
trampled rights, ignored history, rammed
government into their places of worship and
made a tragic mistake.
They are annoyed because McGuinty is
pushing through a law under which Ontario
will no longer enforce rulings made by faith-
based courts on family law issues such as
division of property and child custody.
McGuinty brought it in mainly because of
concern sharia family law used in the
expanding Muslim community favours men,
but it also will not recognize adjudications by
rabbinical courts used by Jews for many years.
Concern at the proposed law's impact on
Jews has dominated hearings by an MPPs'
committee. Rows between a premier and Jews
also are rare, because politicians usually avoid
offending this influential group.
As one example, scores of MPPs have
expressed support for Israel, but only one has
ever said Arabs have a case because Jews
occupy their land.
The battle in the committee has gone
virtually unreported. Representatives of
Orthodox Jews said that community
unanimously wants to keep rabbinical courts,
which they claimed have operated without
problems. - '
New Democrat committee member MPP
Peter Kormos pointed to a concern of many
that it is difficult to know whether faith-based
courts are fair, because they operate in secret.
Complaints rabbinical courts discriminate
against women also have been made from time
to time.
The Jewish spokespersons offered some
And they let me know in no-nonsense, non-
negotiable terms.
They bark. -
My PTs are dogs - a bearded collie named
Homer and a border collie/golden retriever
cross who answers 'to Woolly. Their binding
(though unwritten) contract guarantees them a
45-minute patrol of the neighbourhood
commencing at 8 a.m. each and every
morning, seven days a week, plus a late-
afternoon romp in the local orchard complete
with frisbees, tennis balls, Kongs-on-ropes
and random sniffings of any other four-legged
personal trainers that happen to show up.
Unlike most of my compromises with real
life, using dogs to keep fit actually makes
sense. Researchers at the University of
Missouri-Columbia studied the phenomenon
and concluded that perambulating with your
pooch provides the same benefits you receive
when you hire a personal trainer - namely, it
ensures you get off your duff and cardio-
vasculate even when your Inner Sloth is urging
you to tackle- nothing more challenging than
the channel switcher.
How effective can regular dog-walking be?
According to an article in Legion Magazine -
pretty darned.
Rebecca Johnson, associate professor of
nursing and director of the College of
Veterinary Medicine's Research Centre for
glimpse into this little known world. They
claimed rabbinical Courts follow the most
desirable principles in family law, trying first
counseling and then mediation to save
marriages in a system that dates back to
Moses.
Only a handful of cases reach the stage
where they have to go to arbitration to settle
property and child issues, they said.
Rabbinical courts also were said to share
property between husband and wife similarly
to Ontario courts, but the method of
calculation may not be exactly the same.
However, financial disclosure is always
required.
Rabbinical courts also look at children's best
interests and assure privacy, which Orthodox
Jewish women demand in delicate family
matters.
Orthodox Jewish women were said to prefer
rabbinical courts because they are familiar and
comfortable with their language and view
them as a tenet of their faith as important as
the Ten Commandments.
A spokesman praised rabbinical court
judges as "highly educated gentlemen," but it
would have been more assuring if he could
have said men and women. He added
melodramatically government has no business
in the synagogues of the nation.
The influential Canadian Jewish Congress,
Human-Animal Interaction helped set up the
study for the University of Missouri.
"The results were wonderful," she says.
"Our first study group averaged a weight loss
of 14 pounds per person during the one-year
program."
And these were not mush-you-huskies
survival treks. The walkers started
out with easy 10-minute walks three times a
week. Eventually they worked themselves
up to a leisurely 20 minutes, five times a
week.
Didn't change their diets, count calories or
sign up at a spa. Lost an average of 14 pounds
each.
Don't own a dog - or want to? No problem
- 'borrow someone else's. There are a lot of
dogs out there not getting the regular exercise
they crave.
Ask the owner if you can talk Rover for a
walk. The owner - not to mention Rover - will
love you for it.
But if you try it, sooner or later you'll
probably want your very own in-house canine
trainer. Downside? Walking a dog really is
non-negotiable - neither rain nor sleet, etc.
And while you're not lashing out dough for
club dues, hundred-dollar training shoes and
trendy Lycra exercise outfits, you will face
veterinary bills, dog licence fees, training,
grooming and sundry expenses for leashes,
collars, toys and of course dog food.
It adds up. Churchill Insurance, a pet insurer
in England issues an annual "Cost of a Dog"
report. The latest one claims that the average
cost of owning a dog (assuming a ten year
lifespan) runs to $38,000.
That'd buy a lot of Nordic Tracks.
But come on - when's the last time your
Nordic Track licked your face?
which opposed McGuinty's law, said some
people including women have less power than
others and rabbinical courts provide
safeguards to ensure those using them do so
voluntarily and are fully protected during the
process.
A former Ontario deputy attorney general
who appeared for the CJC suggested the
province continue to allow faith-based courts
to make decisions, but stipulate they must be
compatible with Ontario law and the Charter
of Rights and Freedoms, which won some
support among Progressive Conservatives.
The head of a shelter for abused women
argued the faith-based tribunals cannot easily
identify intimidation, because they look for
large physical signs and fail to note them in the
look on a man's face or way he moves his head
or pushes back his chair.
A Muslim who has criticized sharia said he
has been threatened physically on the streets
and others said women often are coerced into
sharia arbitration and awarded little financial
support and their children are taken by the
father and sent to be raised in his country of
origin and they never see them again.
The, hearings probably will -reinforce
McGuinty in his refusal to recognize Muslims'
sharia law and he may see more merit in Jews'
claims, but he will find it difficult to give one
religion something he has denied to another.
Final Thought
Character - the willingness to accept
resp ity for one's own life - is the
source from which self-respect springs.
- Joan Didion
Not guilty? So relax!
Clear skies above, bare dry roads stretch
ahead. It's a perfect day for travel.
Especially down quiet county roads
when the experience can almost be relaxing.
Such was the case one day this past week.
With unfettered mind and unencumbered by the
stresses of heavy traffic I was cruising my way
to work, conscious of potential hazards, but
coasting comfortably nonetheless. Suddenly a
car appeared on the horizon.
Even before it got close, I recognized it as an
OPP cruiser, then became a little wary as it
moved to the shoulder of the road. My slight
unease increased when the vehicle immediately
swung back out behind me as I passed. And
when a glance in the rearview reflected flashing
lights my heartbeat began to rumba.
Quick thoughts danced through my brain -
was I speeding? Is my insurance in the glove
compartment? What could I have done wrong?
Nothing,I told myself. I have done nothing.
This jumble of notions took seconds, just
long enough for me to get over on the shoulder
of the road and see the cruiser fly by me. A
second later, after a deep inhalation and slow
exhalation I was back on my way with
something new to think about.
My reflections took me back several decades.
For teenagers in the late 1960s and early 70s
police were often seen as the enemy, a view not
lessened by the scenes of confrontation in
newspapers and on 'television. They were no
longer officers, or even cops, but pigs.
One thing did make it a little better for mel
my sister had married an OPP. As a result I was
often in the company of many.
This wasn't necessarily something that made
it better for my peers, however. I recall a time
when a friend and I were visiting with my
sister. Everything was fine until my brother-in-
law got ready for work. Seeing him in uniform
caused a rather pointed alteration in my friend's
demeanor. He looked differently at his host,
and exuded an arrogance and defensiveness not
previously there. And I was surprised to
recognize it as the same attitude I had when the
officer facing me wasn't a relative.
Years passed and my generation changed, as
did the way law enforcement dealt with the
public. In those turbulent times years ago, cops
were often less than subtle in their approach to
policing. We may not have respected them, but
we definitely knew who was in charge.
Not so now. Through my work, I've seen
officers on the job in a variety of
circumstances. The majority are polite to those
who often don't deserve it. They suffer abuse
with grace and show respect and deference.
Of course, there are still exceptions, those
whom one officer once told me even he'd rather
not have to talk to. But, in general I strongly
believe police officers deserve our appreciation
and seldom get it.
That said however, cops can still tie my
intestines into knots. Any time I've been
stopped I get so flustered and nervous they
probably suspect me of a crime much more
heinous than a lead foot. And it's amazing how
guilty I suddenly feel, of who knows what, with
one driving behind me.
There's no doubt the hitch in the heartbeat
when I see a cop is an interesting effect, one
that lasts just long enough for me to remember
we're pretty much on the same side of law and
order now.
And to leave me feeling a little foolish.
Other Views
It's a dog's life Exercise
Jews not turning the other cheek