‘The Five Song Hill’: Short Fiction
Inspiration in spinning class
In a spinning class, the instructor’s commands motivate the writer and the class helps to renew him both physically and spiritually. Elliot Wilner, a retired neurologist living in Bethesda, Maryland, presents “The Five Song Hill, or Spinning Towards Bethlehem.” In Boomer’s From Our Readers.
Level 7, moderate hill… we’re climbing! Gail, our spinning instructor, is speaking into her microphone during a brief lull in the music. Five song hill! Hard climb! Stand up!
For the first three minutes we were spinning our stationary bikes at Level 5, equivalent to a flat road, our cadence in synch with Train’s “Hey Soul Sister.” I could have continued complacently spinning at Level 5 for the entire forty-five minutes of the class. But now we are instructed to increase the resistance to Level 7, and we know that we will soon be increasing the resistance to 8 and to 9, and we will be “climbing” for approximately the next twenty minutes – which is about how long it takes for Gail to play five songs.
We’re climbing… push that hill… it’s your hill, it’s all about you! Spinning is ordinarily all about sweating and suffering, but when Gail leads the class, I am transported to another realm, the domain of dreams, and I’m spiritually renewed. It is my hill – of course Gail is right – and by God I will climb that hill.
Sit down, go fast! Oh yeah! Energy push! We had been out of the saddle, standing, for the past four minutes, and now we are instructed to sit and pick up the cadence. The song she’s playing now is LMFAO’s up-tempo “Party Rock Anthem.” Go fast! Don’tlet the wheel spin you… you spin the wheel! Gail connects with us both viscerally and existentially. It’s not just the spinning flywheel on the bike that she’s talking about; she is talking about the wheel of fortune, the lottery of life – we need to spin it before it can spin us, oh yes! God, I’m so glad I came to the class today – I so much needed to hear Gail explaining everything!
Energy push! Pick it up… another push… you’re workin’! Oh yes, we’re working, and sweating, and breathing hard, and it’s all good! The figure that I see facing me is Gail – her I recognize – but the voice that I hear in my head is the voice of John Calvin, or maybe Mitt Romney. Was it Calvin or Romney who said that a lazy human being is a burden to his fellow men and an affront to God? And that by not working we fail to glorify God? Level 9! Stand up! We’re climbing… hard hill… if it’s not hard, make itharder! Yes, God, it is hard but we want to make it harder! Nothing in this world is guaranteed – not good health, not good fortune – it’s all by the grace of God, and he always rewards those who work hard. Amen. We’re climbing, oh yes we’re climbing! Glory be to God – and Gail, too!
Level 5. Sit down. Grab some water. We are near the end of our session and now we are being led deep into metaphysical territory. Grab water? Is that possible? How does one grab water – it’s liquid isn’t it? But I realize Gail is way ahead of us. Water, the true elixir of life… life, that’s what she’s talking about! We need to grab onto life! Yes, through spinning we come alive! Bless you, Gail. I now feel fully alive, fully awake, and I know that today will be an amazing day, a day on which I will be open to everything life has to offer. Oh, God, how much do I treasure the hours when I’m spinning with you, Gail!
Read more like Elliot Wilner’s spiritual take on spinning class and other contributions from Boomer readers, including nostalgia, essays, and short fiction, in
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