Last week was a tunnel of change. To provide an overall outlook at our gym profile, we had approximately 20% of athletes hold/cancel their membership and 80% of athletes retaining a membership. The gym is about 85% rented of any/ all moveable equipment. We’ve applied for government financial assistance, spoken to our landlord about rent support, and are in flow for the month of April.
Our neighborhood gym, in line with the city of San Diego, in line with the state of California, in line with the United States of America, in line with a majority of the modern world is still holding our breath wondering: how many more positive today, how many more deaths, when will a cure come, what do I do if/ when it hits me?
The news we receive, depending on where your attention is aimed, is a balanced set from mass media new outlets to personal social media updates. Few facts change from a day to day basis outside this “new normal” that cases continue to rise, our healthcare system is overwhelmed and under resourced, our economy is tanking to levels compared to The Great Depression, and “they” say the worse is yet to come. On the opposite spectrum, opinions and stories of how this is affecting and who it is impacting gets closer and closer to home if it already hasn’t landed in your household. The forecast, unpredictable with a heavy chance of the same.
As sobering and anxious as the season calls for, we are not denied hope. Stay Home is the mandate, it’s the “new normal”. Thus, we are offered an opportunity to contain. We are afforded “new time” that we didn’t account for before. Though some of our lives may feel busier because of the moves we’ve been forced to make, once we realize “new routine” within this new context of living, we will begin to look at the lives we lived and the lives we seek to pursue with new lenses. New, new, new… That’s the current hope and the question that burns is what will you do with new?
When I think about the gym, the first things that come to mind are the people. The place, the space, and the equipment within it hover my radar, but the central nucleus of thought, feeling, memory, and wonder are about the individuals. The faces, the daily interactions, the mannerisms, the style, the routine of how we show up and leave… That’s what I miss most, the energy of the people in the space and the impression each individual makes at SCCF. The irony of energy and how we come to a space to spend it, yet the most impactful piece of the formula is just showing up and being yourself.
Always,
LeeJ