"Phone call for you."

The orderly handed me the phone.

I'd just gotten back from working out in the small exercise room here at the home.

All I wanted to do was take a shower and go have dinner.

They serve dinner promptly at six. If you showed up late you missed out. They say it's some sort of discipline that we all lack in our lives. If we'd gotten the right training when we were growing up, then we'd never have let ourselves turn out the way we did.

I asked the therapist during group if he thought that working out was a discipline?

He said that it was.

I then told him I'd worked out everyday of my life since I can remember so I don't have a lack of discipline.

The therapist said that I never had any. What I had was lust.

He told us about an order of monks during the Crusades, who were also great fighters. They practiced the art of combat so they could fight for the glory of God. They were not only the finest warriors in the holy lands, they also believed in helping the sick and the poor. They knew that even the humblest of men were glorified in God.

We all stared at him, missing the point.

Finally, he said that they worked on their minds and bodies to be closer to God. I, on the other hand, worked out for the purpose of getting some guy in the sack.

I was about to tell him he was wrong when I realized he was right.

I couldn't count the number of times I was in bed with some guy who'd say how hot my body was, how much I turned them on, or how hard they'd gotten just by looking at me.

I always liked it when they said that.


Vanity, thy name is Greg.

*****

"Hello?" I said into the receiver. "This is Greg."

It was Mike.

He asked me if I'd like to sketch some sets for a dance piece he was doing for some local college.

I looked at my watch.

5:43pm.

I told I'd work on them tonight and give them to him tomorrow.

I hung up, showered, dressed and ran to dinner.

It was 6:01pm.