Absolutely obsessed today with the sanitation worker who services my apartment building. I’m walking back from the gym in the early hours of the morning, still catching my breath from a good workout and congratulating myself on being so consistent with my fitness, when I see him. He’s not a big guy at all, and he’s pushing a big heavy steel recycling container up a slope to get it into the parking garage – and he’s got a cigarette dangling out of his mouth the whole time.

Two appreciations here: one, the feat of fitness. I think of myself as a pretty fit guy, and I could not pull off that combo. And two, the middle finger to God. “Thank you, God, for giving me this body to pilot through all Life’s adventures. I will now proceed to abuse it in ways even You will find incomprehensible.” Iconic.