I'm like a motorcycle...

I have said it before and will say it again, over and over again if needed - although I do fear it might be a case of "The gentleman doth protest too much, methinks." (Nods to my boy Shakespeare.) - I am not a sports guy.

I'm not.

Despite a love for rock climbing, running, cycling, swimming, snowboarding, et hoc genus omne, I do not like sports.

I realise that this seems like a serious disconnect. But it is how things sit in my mind.

Growing up I never enjoyed sports. I had an adversarial relationship with them. While both my brother and sister played basketball and soccer and baseball and volleyball, I did not if I could in any way prevent it.

When I was about eight or nine, thinking that their youngest was most likely very much like their oldest, my parents signed me up for the local youth soccer league. I cannot remember being more miserable in my youth. I felt awkward and out of place. And clumsy. Frankly, I hated it. And I sucked at it.

But as an adult I do many sporty things. And apparently my body is very much like a motorcycle.

According to a little quiz set up by The Car Connection, my body gets the equivalent of 45.5 miles per gallon.

45.5 miles per gallon
And that's a good thing. I like being healthy. I like doing physical things. I like that my body is like a motorcycle rather than, say, a minivan or a mid-sized sedan. But I still maintain that I do not like sports.

If I take a step back and look at things from the here-and-now I realise it is team sports that are not my thing. Yet I cannot separate the "team" from "sport" and when I hear "sport" it invariable registers as "team sport". Sport to me means soccer. Or baseball. Or any of those other games that to my mind seem like military maneuvers, like empty and disciplinary repetition. I just don't like team sports. Not to play. And not even to watch for the most part.

Individual sports, however, I like. Both to do and to watch. Perhaps I don't play well with others. Perhaps I prefer to have it all about me - I am an Aries after all! If I could wash the association of "sport" and "team sport" from my mind I might be able to admit that I am sporty.

Until then, I'll just be happy to be like a motorcycle.