As we naturally unfolded from our helpless childlike state into adulthood, we gradually took responsibility for stewarding our bodies through life and into old age. The quality of guidance we received in our early years will have varied, as will the willingness with which we picked up the reigns, but nonetheless, our body is now our responsibility.
Our body has been entrusted to our care on behalf of the next person who will need to use it. And that next person happens to be a future version of ourselves. Will that future person be grateful for the condition in which their body has been received, or will they curse the previous owner for their neglect?
Compared with ownership, stewardship puts a greater emphasis on care and preservation. If we own something we can do with it what we will. It’s ours to preserve or destroy. It’s ours to treat with consideration, or with disdain. Whereas stewardship comes with an obligation to the ultimate owner - the final owner - the version of ourselves in the final stages of life. Will we take our final breath with acceptance or regret, with gratitude or with resentment?
“Besides, it is a disgrace to grow old through sheer carelessness before seeing what manner of man you may become by developing your bodily strength and beauty to their highest limit. But you cannot see that, if you are careless; for it will not come of its own accord.”
Attributed to Socrates, as recorded by Xenophon in his work "Memorabilia".
We do not have to be passive recipients of our physical conditions or alienated users of physical function. We can approach our physicality with an ethical obligation to preserve and enhance its condition for future use through our daily rituals of nourishment, strengthening, and restoration.
Stewardship empowers us to be active participants on the path of health and fitness mastery, with a sense of responsibility and gratitude for the vessel which carries us through life.