It Only Took Five Short Words... And An Exclamation Mark!

Day 79, Friday March 20, 8.45pm: I must admit, I was wavering.
I'm not saying I was losing the faith. I know I'd have been okay.
But John The Fish just made it a lot easier to find my feet again.
It only took him a few words, after I had suggested I was finding my resolutions somewhat tough to keep in the last few weeks. Five words, to be exact. Short ones. Plus an explanation mark. 'Tony don't let me down!' he wrote in his comment to 'The First Big Hiccup' posting of day 76.
Which is what TRSNYRC is meant to be all about. We are meant to be supporting each other.
So thanks for that, John The Fish. I'm back in the gym and swimming again and attempting to chew my food 36 times (it now takes me one and a half hours to get through my breakfast porridge).
It was good to know that somebody is out there.
I may have mentioned this before, by the way, but it's the same supportive principle which led to the creation of the Sacred Band of Thebes. Just much more proper, and platonic and British, of course.
The Sacred Band, in case you didn't know, was established by Gorgidas, a military leader in far-gone ancient Greece, some 2,300 years back.
The band was made up of 300 warriors - or rather, 150 pairs of pederastic lovers. Not gay, exactly, as I understand it, but that way inclined, one chap a mentor and the other one a young buck. I surely don't have to spell it out. You know what the ancient Greeks were like.
The idea, though, was obviously a sound one. Gorgidas had worked out that his men may not be that keen to die for King and Country, but they'd do their best for their best mate standing at their side.
Which is why, I gather, the British army regularly recruited its World War I soldiers in pre-established groups - rugger XVs, darts teams, troupes of actors, stamp collecting societies, village drinking mates and fellow trainspotters - and kept them together in the same units. Thus organised, they were much better at dying together. All because of their shared passion for treble 20s, Shakespeare and the Penny Black.
The Sacred Band were pretty good at copping it together, too. Considered Thebes' finest battle group, they met a gallant, bloody end at the Battle of Chaeronea, in 338 BC, at the hands of Philip II of Macedon.
Amazing what you learn, blogging.
PS: Note from our legal department - please be assured, by the way, that the above refereences to the Sacred Band in no way reflect on the sexual preferences of any members of TRSNYRC. Each to his or her own. Live and let live.
(I see nothing strange in someone being more interested in pike than human beings, John. Really I don't).