Skip to main content

Going in Circles

So, there is a common idiom in English about going around in circles. It means roughly that you're not really accomplishing anything because you end up at the same spot you started (that's what happens when you traverse a circle). It's a simple enough notion, and the saying rarely needs explaining. It just sort of makes sense.

Well, let me tell you, I have reason to disagree.

In my case, I don't mean the sort of hypothetical running around in circles, I mean the literal kind. I have literally gone around in circles and found value in the exercise. It's also worth noting that the act wasn't a way of getting exercise, either. No one would dispute that running laps around a track has its own value (even if you're the type who finds that kind of exercise boring, you can understand the logic behind it). However, in my case, it wasn't a way to get exercise. I have different, more amusing, reasons.

In the first case, I was sitting around at home, and I started to feel a bit antsy. I don't quite know what came over me, but I just felt the need to move around or burn off some energy. I actually did a few push ups first, but I still wanted to just move around. So, I got up and started pacing a bit. Now, me walking back and forth around the house is nothing new. In those cases, though, it was more to multitask while I was otherwise occupied. In this case, the pacing was the primary activity.

As it turned out, it did the trick. I started to get into a bit of a rhythm, and I just ... kept walking. Now, the apartment is only so big, so it's impossible for me to walk very far in a straight line. At some point, you run out of real estate. So, I turned around and walked back. By this point, tracing actual, literal circles through the apartment seemed like a good idea. I didn't track exactly how long I did this, but it was long enough for me to laugh at myself. I'm positive I walked at least a couple of thousand steps that way.

The second, and more amusing, case of this involved a baby. I was at my parents' place during the day, so I got to see some of the babies. There were a couple of them there that I hadn't seen very much of before, so I was playing with them a bit to get them to feel comfortable around me. One particular baby wasn't actually mobile, so I couldn't exactly play tag with him. He did, however, keep an eye on me as we were playing. So, I started to move around laterally to get him to follow along with his eyes.

Once I saw he was doing that, a light bulb went on: what if I moved around him? One way to find out, right? So, I started going in circles around him. Sure enough, he realized what was happening, and he kept snapping his head in the other direction once I got far enough behind him that his peripheral vision couldn't keep up. Again, I was literally running around in circles. And both the baby and I were laughing about the whole thing. Eventually he got tired of the game, but I still count that as a victory. Running in circles for the win.

I don't exactly cherish accomplishing nothing, but I think I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with the dictionary. Going around in circles can be quite fruitful.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pink

Way back in high school, there was a male teacher that all the girls thought was attractive. It was an open secret that a bunch of them had crushes on him. In fact, the school newspaper even did an article about him that quoted some girl saying, "he's so cute, he even makes pink look good." Yes, he had worn a pink shirt to school one day, and it had apparently been a big hit. I was reminded of this story when my sister-in-law suggested that she would choose pink as the color for her wedding and bridal party. I don't think I've ever made a color look good before, but I remember thinking, "well, I know it's possible to not look stupid in pink as a straight guy, I guess I can try." And I think that's almost exactly what I told her. I also happened to own a gray suit, so I figured the combination would look all right. However, I was pretty much the only one willing to play along. My sister-in-law's brothers wanted absolutely no part of th...

Dreams

Normally, I don't eat very many sweets. I tend to eat pretty generous portions, but I generally prefer savory food over sweet. In fact, I usually prefer things half as sweet when possible. My preference doesn't have anything to do with health reasons, it's just one of those things that I've always liked better. That said, I do inevitably eat dessert, particularly if I'm out with other people. My stance towards dessert is roughly equivalent to those who are social drinkers . If other people want to munch on something for dessert, I'm not about to cross my arms and refuse. That'd be just a tad gauche. So, I do eat some dessert. I even have a few standby favorites that I'll usually order when presented with them (brownies, creme brulee, and apple pie). But left to my own devices, I'm not about to go hunting for dessert. Apparently, this means that the sugar can really mess with my system under the right circumstances. As I've discovered, ...

New York City Trip (Day 1)

After my crappy flight , I was now in Newark, New Jersey at 7AM on a Friday morning. I had done a little bit of reading up, so I knew which bus I needed to take and where I was going to get off. All in all, getting into the city was surprisingly easy. I suppose speaking the language does make things simpler. Through no real planning of mine (a theme of the trip, at least on my part), I picked one of the later bus stops at which to get off, Grand Central. I actually just figured that getting off at Grand Central would give me options, and heck, it's called Grand Central. That just screamed "decent place to disembark that might be close to some stuff" to me, so that's where I got off. However, it also meant that we drove down 42 nd St to get to my bus stop. That just happens to be a big street, and it gave me a glimpse of Times Square as we drove by. My bus stop choice had accidentally given me a rough layout of the city. Go me. I had about 6 hours to kill...