STEPHEN IPPOLITO writes in the discussion on exercise:
It’s a small point, but when Laura observes upon her “intuitive sense” that running or jogging “is not all that calming” and as such, when undertaken publicly, is likely beneath the dignity of of women generally, and of Catholic women in particular, I could not agree more.
I can confirm that the Australian Army, at least in relation to its officers’ training, (or at least when I went through it), supports the truth of what Laura intuits about running or jogging.
The very first statement delivered in the very first class on the very first day of my army direct commissioning course was the warning that “officers never run.” This may sound a strange thing for a military leadership course to lead off with , as it initially seemed to me then, but as it was explained to my cohort and I, running was frowned upon not simply because it may panic the troops but for the much more important reason that rapid, rushed, hectic action – or any behaviour for that matter that springs from or tends to suggest a lack of control by a leader – is undignified and beneath a person in authority and undermines the quality of dignity that a person in authority must at all times exhibit to earn and hold the respect and confidence of others.
Laura is right to pose as the litmus test whether a mother or any other matron of yesteryear could be imagined running or jogging up and down the local streets or laying on the footpath doing “ab crunches” or “jumping jacks”, or as I witnessed this morning, gathering in a herd of 20 or so beneath a banner titled “Yummy Mummies” to run whilst pushing their babies ahead of them in prams/strollers – and to answer “no.”
This is because people will not respect or follow a person without dignity and wives and mothers, at least until recent times, modelled and set the tone for their families’ behaviour domestically as well as beyond the home at a local level through maintaining their communities’ social and support networks. Laura speaks an essential, (but regrettably forbidden), truth when she observes that: “All of society hinges on the dignity of women.” (more…)