Overweight Gymnast

Last night I had a long writing session on my dissertation. It feels like I am running my hardest on the a treadmill and nothing is really getting accomplished at all. It's really quite depressing.

This morning I dreamed about an overweight gymnasts. I think this is a good allegory to what I am feeling at the moment. Gymnasts have mastered the techniques and their bodies automatically move to the music the way the routine has been choreographed. Years later, muscle memory positions the body in exactly the right form and moves in exactly the right sequence, but those pesky jumps and tumbles are impossible to do now because you've gotten older....and gained too much weight.

I feel as though I am the overweight gymnast in this stupid dissertation. I know all the parts and what to do but I've gained too much weight to execute the most basic moves because there is too much baggage. Whatever, just keep swimming, right?