Noosa is a place where there is a high percentage of the population keen on keeping fit. No doubt the gyms are fully utilised but many like to be seen doing their fitness activities. We have gangs of bicycles on the roads with the men and women in their lycra. They usually end their fifty mile ride in the coffee shops clomping around in their odd shoes and padded bottoms. Joggers run the myriad of tracks and footpaths. Personal trainers can be seen in the ovals and along the riverbank torturing those that are desperate to get their bodies in shape. Group classes are also held along the river. Dog walkers abound, but that perhaps is not for personal fitness so much as giving the dogs a treat and a lot of exercise of the jaws as proud owners chat whilst their pooches play.
The other day whilst I was exercising my dog and my jaws a jogger with pram flashed by. The speed so fast that she was gone before, almost, I’d realised that she was there. At that point I wished I was a psychology researcher for I’d most definitely ask “what effect does running at such speed have on the psyche, if any, of a baby lying in a pram moving against the line of sight? Would it make the child fearless of extreme sports and fairground rides or more so? ”
I blame my father for my fear of driving on steep winding roads. He had no idea that his practical joking on these byways would lead to a lifelong terror for me. I know how uncomfortable I felt when on a hospital trolley being wheeled from emergency to a ward when it seemed that the wardsman was wheeling me at great speed through the hospital corridors and tunnels with me looking only at where we had been. I know I never choose to travel backwards on a train but always choose a seat that faces the direction I am going.
I wonder if the mother’s are getting fit but what effect does it have on the child? What do you think? Perhaps you know of some research that has already been done.
Reflections and Nightmares- Irene A Waters (writer and memoirist) 