Overactive Imagination

I'm only at the beginning of the second volume of three of The Complete Calvin & Hobbes and so can't write my book review yet, but I know I will include this:

I feel blessed to have read these during my formative years. There is much of Calvin in me (and I see much of myself in Calvin).

I was thinking about that as Duncan and I were walking today. My favorite forms of exercise are running, hiking, and biking (and swimming), and I prefer to find isolated, off-the-beaten-path spots as much as possible. Because, even to this day, I try not to think that I'm going out to exercise so much as I'm going adventuring and exploring. I may not make up characters and stories the way Calvin does, but I have that idea in the back of my mind. Which explains why I have a tendency to be overly ambitious, because if things get tough and hurt, well, that's just the lot of an epic hero. And I think it also explains why despite it all I'm not a particularly impressive physical specimen; I've never developed the discipline to make myself work out consistently because my motivation depends on my ability to make it fun.

From here: