Girding Your Loins
The expression is more interesting than you may imagine. Whenever I heard the expression I assumed that it referred to the fact that before going into battle, an ancient warrior would wrap his legs to the top of his legs to protect the soft underbelly of his body, It is strange that man, the most advanced species, chose to become bipeds when the mere act of walking erect exposed frontally the softest and most vulnerable parts of his anatomy. I presume that natural selection proved that the increased mobility greatly outweighed the added exposure. But then, to be accurate in that presumptive definition and explanation, the expression would need to change to Girding Your Groins. Groins are the reference to the inner thigh and genitalia and loins are the flanks of our midsection on either side of the spine. The loin of the meat in butchery is considered quite valuable because it tends to be more tender and fleshy as opposed to muscular and sinewy.
The expression of girding one’s loins is a biblical reference that means to prepare in the sense that someone in a long flowing robe (the attire of the biblical era and time of general modesty) was not prepared to maneuver or travel, and that what was needed to supplement the freedom and practicality of a robe in the hot and arid climate of the Middle East, was something akin to a belt. One girds one’s loins by battening down the hatches and tightening one’s belt. You might be doing this for an ensuing battle, but not just that reason. We are all in a constant state of preparation for what life throws at us and, as such, we are all always girding our loins.
I, actually, have a problem with belts. They are like the old misogynistic expression, “you can’t live with them and you can’t live without them”. I need one and use on a daily basis, to keep my pants up. My body shape is such that I am both broadest (in girth) at my waist, and, as such, things tend to slide down if left unattended. The fact is that I have surprisingly little bulk in the derrière, so it offers little resistance to falling trousers. I use suspenders for my motorcycle suiting for practical reasons, but am way too vain to use them on regular clothing.
This problem has caused some very amusing moments. I remember a certain restaurant in Southern Utah that offered an interesting pickle pie and while I walked across the diner’s floor from the salad bar to my table, my pants saw fit to fall to my ankles. Luckily, everyone was engrossed in their pickle pie and I quickly pulled them up with only Kim being the wiser. A similar event occurred once on Bowling Green in lower Manhattan when I was forcing a Citibike back into its cradle with a tad too much effort. That was a much more risqué event, being outdoors in a crowded place, but I recovered quickly and I saw no one who had noticed. The same risk faces me every day out in the garden, but I usually manage a peremptory pause to pull up my pants. People seem to expect everyone to be prepared to keep their pants up.
Where the loins are fleshy and sometimes tender, the groin, meaning the portion of inner thigh from knee to the crease where the leg meets the torso, is largely underused (assuming you’re not a speed skater or something) and good mostly just for cramping at very painful and inconvenient moments. I still can’t figure out a complicated thing like why my inner thigh should cramp, but I know it is very difficult to head off at the pass once it starts. I keep thinking I need to drink more water, but its hard to feel the corrective action of that taking hold compared to say getting my massage therapist to work it for me. In fact, I just texted him to get him over here whenever he’s available. He is the adult son of Dave, my carpenter and where Dave, as nice a guy as he is, is only one degree removed from Tim McVeigh in his political orientation (a calmer more reasoned version who still leans decidedly red), Andrew, his son, is enlighten and blue and is into holistic healing. I keep telling Andrew he needs to work out some of his dad’s kinks….but only after he gets rid of my threatening inner thigh groin cramp.
I am currently girding my loins in several ways. Yes, I am tightening my belt both physically and metaphorically. I am preparing my property for sustainability. The roof and parapets are hardened now and water-tight. The deck is definitely hardened and almost ready for its final touches of tile and glass railing. It will then be fully battened down for the duration, which I interpret to mean as long as I will ever need it. I’m reasonably sure the Ipe wood palapa and heavy duty fire pit will go the distance. The deck furniture is good for a few years but will need replacement entirely or at least another set of new Sunbrella cushions. When the new front door gets hung this week and the door and gate painting finishes, the portals to the castle will be secure. Kim’s new laundry room will be the last such redo I imagine we will ever need. So, the hilltop is solid.
My mind and spirit is reasonably stable and the past year has done much to gird my mental loins. I now know I can fill my day productively with this or that and can alternate this and that in a manner to not over-tax myself, but still keep myself from the pitfalls that come with sloth and boredom. But my psyche is much like my groin muscle. It has had sixty years of preprogramming that hasn’t required such psychic agility. I got up, went to work, fulfilled my obligations to those who were relying on me, squeezed in a little time for whatever avocation moved my spirit at the moment, and then slept soundly in the knowledge that I was being responsible. Also, like my groin muscle, my psyche is forever twitching to remind me that it might cramp up at any moment and cause me debilitating distress for several painful moments and then fade back into the wallpaper of my being, wondering where this cramp even came from.
I will also like to think that I have girded my work loins. I spent forty-five years being a jack of all trades, master of none. That worked well for me for a long time. The free-flow of my skill sets had a financial and managerial bent, but those are both extremely broad and varied and there was always time to learn a new skill. Not so much any more. Now I find myself trying to force a belt around my highest and best uses and marshal my resources towards where I can add the most value. Don’t get me wrong, that still leaves lots of room to learn new things, but they tend to better fall into buckets of specific expertise.
My work as an expert witness has done a good job of refining the value of my highest and best use and the breadth thereof. I feel very confident in issues of prudence and suitability. I feel equally confident that I can examine facts and use my broad and solid understanding of investment and managerial process to credibly opine and advocate my opinions in both written reports and rebuttals as well, and perhaps most importantly, in verbal testimony and debate. All of this goes to why I am reorienting my teaching to this broader and important contextualization review of the policy and ethical foundations of business practice. That approach should keep me relevant for as long as I will want to work. Girding my loins has as much meaning to me in progressive retirement as it ever had preparing to do battle.