This morning while I was waiting for some repair work on Harvey, the RV, I heard two of the mechanics talking about the weather - the forecasts have been predicting rain, thunderstorms, high winds, etc. for over a week now, though no rain had yet fallen, only a hot dry wind taunted us.
The conversation was mostly about "convenience"; how "bad" weather during the work day is SO very inconvenient, and the same happening during the night is "more convenient."
It started me thinking about how our culture is based on convenience almost as much as on consumption.
We have "convenience foods" ie, prepackaged, even precooked - just need warming.We have such efficient warming and cooling mechanisms that we never need feel the real weather.
We can move so fast in our cars that 100 miles is just a few hours travel - what if you were walking? How far could you go in a day? How important is your travel?
Having the "convenience" of electric lights allows us to avoid the darkness of night any time we choose, so that sunrise and sunset are no longer valued.
Most of us don't bake the bread we eat, nor make the fire (heat) that cooks it - we don't even know how to grow the grain that will be ground to make bread.
It occurs to me that like a muscle that atrophies from misuse - our inability to live in the world without these "conveniences" is making us flabby, physically, mentally, and, maybe, even spiritually.
Why do we join gyms and health clubs to "work out," go to ski resorts, or to tropical beaches for "recreation." If our lives offered enough physical challenges we wouldn't need to create them artificially.
If we made our own music, told our own stories, danced our own dances, instead of watching someone else do it - how would our lives be enriched?
To chop wood for the winter warms you twice - once when you chop it and then when you sit before a warm fire in cold weather.
When you grow that tomato, even in a pot on the windowsill, it will have a different taste. You tended it. You watched it become. Your food can become more than simply prepackaged anonymous vegetation.
I suggest that seeking out challenges where ever they may be found equals exercise - even if it is metaphorical exercise. Perhaps building our metaphorical muscles will bring us closer to awakening from our psycho-spiritual slumber.
What do you think?
Please share your thoughts.
Until next time....
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Mankind as a whole has gotten fat and lazy. You speak of convenience and perhaps in the beginning that what they were but today they have become our doom. Children use to get out and play from nearly sun up to sun down. Mom never had trouble getting them settled down at night for bed. Walk through the different stores and look around you at the over weight people, men, women and the children... oh my Goddess!
ReplyDeleteTake away their cell phones, their computer rights, their play stations, their hand held games, their MP3....you get the idea. Make the youth of today get of their ever rounding butts and back out side - may be, just maybe they'll live pass 42 without having their first heart attack.
Planting our food, hunting our own meats are a thing of the pass. Should a man of any age nearly tried getting out and chop wood for even a camp fire chances are it would nearly kill them! I've seen people jump in their car to simply go 2 or 3 houses of the road instead of walking. Whatever happen to the family getting out in the evenings and taking a nice walk simply for the fun of it.
It's been foretold that the age of convenience is quickly racing to a dead stop - in oh so many way it may just be a good thing. Then mankind will have to once again get off their duff and do for themselves and in doing so this nation of ours will once again become a strong nation.
Grandfather Oak
My peacocks have just finished their biggest molt of the year dropping their long false tail feathers. I can sell these feathers so I harvest them by picking them up and heat treating them, sorting and packing them. This is not just time consuming but also makes me touch my toes 150 times, for each peacock, to pick up the feathers.
ReplyDeleteIt is one of my favorite forms of exercise.
The world we live in is so ready to label us disabled and medicate us. When a little bit of purpose and and exercise could do so much toward making us healthy. If I had been a horse they would have shot me years ago. Thankfully I have a world of animals that need me year round in all kinds of weather, everyday. I get up and do what needs to be done and am not only rewarded by the healthy animals but also by my own health.
I try to pass this on to the young people in my life. Some get it. Some don't. There is hope.
Hello Elspeth!