Mens Sana in Corpore Sano

In this time of the year, when the tough winter loosens its grip and light is coming back, you see people crawling out of their burrows. Young and old, men and women, terrorise the streets with their colourful T-shirts and their white legs. Jogging, skeelering or biking, they all want to fulfil their New Year’s resolutions, work for a slim line, a better health, or a better performance in the next race with friends. I am one of them.

Mens Sana in Corpore Sano is Latin for “a healthy mind in a healthy body” and is an excerpt from a poem of the Roman poet Juvenal (Juvenalis). At secondary school, we ironically adopted the phrase as the non-official motto of our school, because of the relatively extensive sports programme we used to have there. The phrase would fit well into a Spartan gymnasium and suggests a healthy mind and healthy body need to be obtained by hard work. Some fitness rooms indeed resemble an industry hall, not to say a medieval torture chamber. The poet Juvenal however, indicated we have to pray (orandum est) for a healthy mind in a healthy body, (rather than for wealth, power, eloquence, or children). Health of body and soul is therefore not only a task but also a mercy and the lesser sportsmen among my friends will welcome this view.

It needs to be said that sports has never been as necessary as today. Working 40-hours a week behind a computer in a landscape office is not good for your mental and physical health. Our work biotope does not evolve in a healthy direction and the longer we stay in this biotope, the more Juvenal's recommendation becomes valid.