you lift from the bottom, part two

The first thing I learned about weightlifting was to always lift from the bottom. The power of the idea was its universality. It applied to leg exercises like the power squat, full body movements like the deadlift, and upper body lifts like the bench press. In each, the correct technique was to push straight up from directly beneath the weight. The weight lifter who jerked or pulled risked injury, usually from the weight toppling over as a result of lost stability after the sudden movement.

As I do with all universal concepts, I eventually had my ‘Neo Moment’ and applied it elsewhere. It took a long time, around ten years, but I finally got around to it last year. I was chatting on Charles Street with a local guy I run into every once in a while. We were talking about the different neighborhoods in the area and sharing our skepticism that these were the ‘up-and-coming’ places everyone was making them out to be. How could it be when housing costs were rocketing up yet wages were holding steady? Who was paying for it? And in the midst of this, I realized that the answer was no one, no one was paying for it, because rising neighborhoods must lift from the bottom yet these places were clearly being yanked from the top.

I didn’t come to this conclusion because I understand real estate or development economics or frictional unemployment. I didn’t come to this conclusion after reflecting on the break-in many years ago at my apartment in South Boston – one of The Great Rising Boston Neighborhoods – and finally recognizing that a simmering undercurrent runs beneath any new development. I came to this conclusion because I’ve seen people get injured weightlifting. You can’t just pull from the top and expect everything below to follow – what usually happens instead is a dizzying rise met with a swift, painful fall.