Do you ever have trouble getting motivated in PE?  Do you think that the running and stretching and jumping and throwing are for the athletes, but not for you?  Or are you an athlete, and think that you need only do enough to win, or get a good mark in the fitness test—no need to overexert yourself, right? 

Nothing could be further from the truth.  A rigorous, physical education is important for all of us, because sloth is a danger to all of us.

Sloth, sometimes also called laziness or idleness, is one of the seven deadly sins or capital vices.  It is the combination of a lack of movement or exertion physically and indifference or apathy spiritually.  A slothful person is the person who sits on the sideline and says, “I don’t care.”  Indeed, the animal we call the sloth is characterized most of all by what?  It hardly moves.

The danger in being slothful is not just a loss of physical health for lack of exercise—it is a loss of our whole humanity, because our bodies, minds, and souls are one.  Apathy makes us physically lazy, sluggish, and unfit; idleness produces lethargy and boredom and ultimately pushes us toward melancholy. 

So, what can we do to avoid becoming slothful?  In Canto 18 of Purgatorio, Dante encounters the slothful people on the fourth terrace of Mount Purgatory, where the poet Virgil explains that sloth is the result of insufficient love—for it is love that, in the end, motivates us to act.

But even on this Valentine’s Day, can we really just make ourselves love to engage in physical activity?  No, probably not.  But do you know what the slothful souls in purgatory are doing in Dante’s story?  You guessed it: They are running continuously to purge themselves of their sloth.

If you find yourself tempted by sloth, don’t wait until you feel like exercising.  Just do it.  You might be surprised to find that you come to love it.

Have a wonderful day.