I really didn’t need to visit one of Malta’s largest home improvement centres to buy a few little screws, but alas, my overkill at least served as some inspiration of sorts.
As I wandered through the aisles, feasting my eyes on shelves packed with shiny new tools, home appliances and gadgets, reality struck, as the dark shadow of multiple pending DIY jobs suddenly cast itself over my mood, and wallet.
I promptly dragged my feet over to the decidedly less-exciting sealants and roof compounds section. It’s an old house, very old. Leaky door and window frames, and of course the roof, would all have to be seen to by the end of the summer. And then there were aesthetic jobs too, including painting, plastering and some filling in of brick mortar patches on the façade of the house.
Of course, like most people, I have ‘a guy’ for most of these things, as well as a plumber/electrician and carpenter on speed dial. Weighing up the available time, funds and know-how, it’s always a tough decision between reaching for the tool box or the mobile phone.
Of course, a professional can do the job much faster and more effectively than I can, but the temptation to roll up the sleeves and tuck away the wallet has never been greater, particularly since I haven’t even started thinking about the exorbitantly costly project of building the upstairs floor yet, one day, maybe.
If you have made it this far, congratulations, and you might be wondering where all this is leading. Regular readers accustomed to my strange analogies might have figured out by now that I am not just talking about a house of bricks and water here. What I really care about is the most important home you or I will ever actually truly own, the one we will spend our entire lives in. As the plastic fantastic variety of Californians like to say, “My body is my temple”.
Like a house of character, an older body requires a little more tender loving care
This is a home you cannot sell and replace with a new one. That said, you can certainly maintain it, and you might even carry out some major improvements if you want to. Despite the relative permanence of our residency inside this physiological marvel of nature, can we honestly say we pay as much attention to maintaining and caring for it as we should?
Like a brand new flat, a young body can get away with only minimal preventive maintenance. Like a house of character on the other hand, an older body requires a little more tender loving care. It’s ironic, because the more attention our bodies need as we grow older, the less time and energy we tend to have available for carrying out the required maintenance. Just like ignoring pending DIY jobs however, ignoring your body could lead to more serious and costly issues further on down the road.
What occurred to me most vividly in the home improvement centre, one hand hovering over the speed dial button and the other half extended towards a bucket of roof compound, was that aside from major building, plumbing and electrical works requiring licensed professionals, there really are few things a willing enthusiast cannot do around the house with a little creativity, patience and perhaps most importantly of all, access to You Tube.
Maintaining your bodily temple is much the same. Certain issues and conditions, if and when they arise, simply must be diagnosed and treated by relevant competent medical professionals. If medication or therapy is needed, then you’re going to have to entrust your major repair works to the licensed professionals. Just as you wouldn’t completely rewire your home with little to no previous knowledge of electrical systems to save money, it’s never a good idea to undermine your doctor’s advice. In both scenarios, the single most likely outcome is you getting burnt.
Short of requiring medical attention, however, the good news is that maintaining your body can be just like DIY. Realising you tend to get out of breath a little too easily is a little like discovering a leak under your kitchen sink. But just like you wouldn’t start unscrewing all the fittings under your sink without a plan of any greater complexity than ‘just wing it’, you wouldn’t go about the task of improving your cardiovascular endurance by slipping on your sneakers and sprinting off into the sunset.
Most likely you will take a cautious approach to fixing your sink, ensuring you have the right tools and parts, and a fairly good idea about what exactly the problem is and how to fix it. You might have checked online, or asked a more knowledgeable friend or the staff at the hardware store. You will probably dedicate an entire morning or afternoon to the job and proceed with due care and attention.
Do you apply this same extent of attention and care to the maintenance of your bodily home? Do you have the equipment you need? Do you have a fair idea of how to achieve your goals in terms of varying the intensity and frequency of your routine in order to facilitate progress? Have you done some research? By taking your body maintenance seriously and cultivating the right approach, you are no doubt already applying in other facets of your life. Remember your results will range from the essential to the aesthetic and will bring you even greater satisfaction that you did it all by yourself.
matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt