Since last February a colleague of mine has been recruiting me to play basketball at American University. Each week since starting at AU I’ve considered playing, but I never did as I was overwhelmed with first semester class preparations and meetings. On the few days I was free, I didn’t go because I had not yet signed up for my gym membership. In early March I enrolled in the gym. And last Monday I finally pulled everything together and made my way to the basketball court. Within fifteen minutes, I collapsed in pain on the floor of the gym. My whole foot was numb, and I couldn’t walk. I had torn my Achilles tendon.

Since that moment, my world has been disrupted. What used to seem like a short walk is now an excruciating workout. Distances have become magnified as the size of my everyday universe has collapsed. A walk from my bedroom to the bathroom is a treacherous and lengthy experience. After struggling four blocks on my crutches, I couldn’t help but think of Karl Marx. In 1857 in the Grundrisse he argued that the contradictions of Capital could spur on the “annihilation of space by time” (538-39). A simple tear of my tendon had done the complete reverse for my laborious movements. But while I struggled along, Capital was present everywhere as I discovered a whole new line of products marketed to people in my condition. It made me wonder, was Marx right? Does Capital have an Achilles heal?