Faced with cold water, you have to jump in

Faced with cold water, you just have to jump in.

Minus 4 degrees on your day off, you must go out for a run.

Right?

I sort of have to*. It’s a dangerous mindset but I think I’ve worked out why it is.

Even if it is unpleasant

There is more to it, I think, than the endorphins of exercise, than the heightened sense appreciation of nature, than the snug feeling of being warm and dry afterwards.

I think it is the romantics who are to blame. 

The romantic movement wasn’t about being pious or even being pleasant. The music broke convention as did the lifestyles of the poets.

The point was to try things even if they were unpleasant. Have the full range of experiences, don’t just play safe.

Life wasn’t about being good or happy it was about experiencing as much as possible. Love and lose, write the pop song.

Silas Tomkin Cumberbatch?

My Christmas Eve dip in a Scottish loch is tipping a hat to Bryon swimming the Hellespont and joining in obscure Greek wars. It is Coleridge joining in the French Revolution under the name Silas Tomkin Cumberbatch.

* Sort of