Why would you do that?

A common phenomenon that I have noticed over the past few years is people seeing someone else doing something strange, something a little abnormal or simply doing something a sub-optimal way, and upon seeing this asking their friends "Why would you do that?" or some similarly judgemental question. And it is always asked with such a condescending tone - there is no doubt that the question is not really a question, but an attempt to point out the 'failing' they see in the person in question. What they are really saying is "That is such a stupid thing to do/stupid way to do that, I would do it better than that"

It is interesting that I hear people 'asking' this question all the time, yet I never see any indication that the person 'asking' the question has ever bothered trying to 'answer' the question they have (not really) 'asked'.

I don't mean to make myself sound like I am above this phrase - I am sure I have said it myself many times. What I am interested in now though, is qualifying the statement by following it up with a genuine thought process. I want to think "Why would you do that?" then follow that with a genuine introspective questioning process: "No really, what reasons would a person have for doing that? Maybe they can't do it the better way? Maybe there is more going on here than I can see, maybe they have some sort of disability, maybe they are actually smarter than myself and it is myself that doesn't understand" etc.

I can't really expect the population at large to pick up this method of introspective consideration, but I think it is more valuable to attempt to understand 'why they would do that', than it is to simply ask an empty rhetorical question designed to indicate how bad/stupid/uncoordinated/social inept someone else is.

Exercising

I have been working my arse off over the last few weeks (wow, Firefox doesn't recognise the word 'arse' as a word.) I have played squash at least twice a week, been rock climbing once or twice every week for about 4 weeks. I have been canyoning, white water kayking, jogging, regularly doing crunches etc and push ups, and a little bit of weights work. And it is paying off. I feel good, and I am getting quite a few comments, but I am starting to worry about what happens when I get bored with working my arse off.

It will happen. It always happens. I'm not really a long term worker. I get an idea, and I run with it until it bores me. Now what happens when I get bored with doing intense physical exercise almost every night of the week? I'll go back into some sort of stupid comatose lifestyle where I don't leave my room, and I slowly lose all the tone and definition and put all the fat back on. Stupid bloody body. Why can't I just work to my ideal body shape, and then just 'lock it in'. That'd be awesome.

Oh well, whatever happens happens. As per the normal rules of the universe. I still have a goal to get down to 85kg by the end of this month - achieving that I expect I will finally have my real goal achieved: a six pack. I have never had six pack in my life, and I want one. And this time, I will have one.