Stamina, Too, Is a Butler's Important Tool

Hello, everyone. This is Ken, a butler. I am past fifty now, but I am grateful to say I still keep an absolute confidence in my stamina. Today, let me tell you about building that stamina — the marathons and strength training of my days off.

A butler's work and stamina. At a glance, they may seem not to connect. But to support the running of a great house over long hours, and to move calmly when it truly counts, sure stamina is simply indispensable. However well the head turns, if the body does not follow, the duty cannot be fulfilled. Stamina, too, is for me one important tool of the trade.

On my days off, going out to run from early morning has been a habit of many years. While running, I think of nothing extra. I simply carry my feet at a steady rhythm and order my breath. This quiet time clears my head. The knack of running a long distance is not to dash from the start. Keep your own pace, and continue, evenly. This overlaps, exactly as it is, with the attitude of running a great house over long years. Without flash, it is the one who piles up the days evenly who runs it through to the end.

Nor do I neglect building strength. Not to force myself into hard muscle, but to keep an ever-unchanging bearing. Even as the years pass, to stand with my back straight and move quietly and surely. That foundation I guard through daily training. Incidentally, if you should wish it, I can run alongside you.

Heart and body cannot be parted. To order the body is to order the heart. Even at my age, believing so, I went out again to run this morning. Might you, too, keep a habit of moving the body in a way that suits you? I shall keep myself, body and all, in order, so as to offer a comfortable space.