Elise Hu

So that's why I felt my feels with them, as millennial as it sounds.

And I will never say that phrase again, I think.

Nothing brings me more joy than sitting in the passenger seat while Hanif drives around the city of Columbus, picking up his dry cleaning, going to the bakery, dropping off some package to a friend that got delivered to his house because the friend was out of town.

And while we're driving, Hanif is pointing out

personal landmarks around the city.

Like there's the basketball court I used to play on when I was a kid.

And then over there is the smaller basketball court where the younger siblings were relegated when the older kids wanted to play on the big court.

And over there is where I had a really bad date one time.

And then over there is where the best milkshake is.

And I have this great awe and this great respect for the way Hanif loves his hometown and how it's not abstract to him.

He loves people there.

He loves people.

the elders that live on his block.

He loves the high school students that he mentors and who mentor him back.

He loves the

guys who work at the record store and remember what he bought last time so that when he comes in next time, they have something to recommend him.

And the way that he moves through that place looks like what I imagine you are looking for when you are looking for an example of how to be in community.

I couldn't help but, over the course of writing this book, start to think of muscle as a philosophy.

Where there are all these characteristics of muscle, the tangible stuff, right?

So strength and form and action, that it is the stuff that actually moves us, and flexibility and endurance.