A Circle of Sirens

They are beautiful and reminiscent of mythical and real-life sirens: Botticelli's Venus has masses of  long blond curly hair. She moves wistfully through the routines in the two-hour workout, stopping to lounge or stretch luxuriously in the pumping and cycling sessions.  Gabrielle Reece has rounded shoulders and a perfectly sleek long blonde ponytail.  She does not look a day over 30, even though she is turning 50 this month.  Sophia Loren sashays her way through every move with a voluptuous gesture, lifting weights as if she invoking the gods. The ugly-beautiful Paula Viardet leads both the pumping and cycling classes with an iron fist (she has been holding classes with the sirens for over 20 years).  In the dark room lit only by candles, she DJ's the class, set up as a circle of stationary bicycles, while riding and holding hands-free microphone to share her "new ageisms": "Be strong, be brave, move on, love, forgive, forget, love again."  Then she shares the secret to eternal youth: constant motion--through love, pain, happiness, tragedy."  She is the one who assigns the bicycles.  If you are late to class she writes you up and gives you a talking to.  If you leave the circle she does not allow you back into the room. We move to the pounding tracks of Tupac, Madonna, Rihanna, Little Wayne.  We know the classes are spiritual, physical, draining and liberating, and we also know that one of the siren's lost her husband when he had a massive heart attack in the center of the circle. Occasionally, we in look in the direction of his passing 

When we are finished we jump back into our busy lives with more energy and enthusiasm than before. Memoir, "The Continent of Ruby," available at: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TT5DDWO