Sunday, April 03, 2005
Hip to be Fit
I feel like things have changed a lot since I was born. It wasn't so long ago that people pursued leisure activities in their free time. These days, instead of spending Sunday being lazy, you have to go do stuff to be considered cool. Things like rafting, hiking, mountain biking and other outdoor activities spring to mind. I have this vision that in the 70's people were cool just sitting around and not doing much. Go over to so and so's house on a Sunday morning for a little wake and bake followed by a lazy day of guacamole, music and TV. What happened to those days? Health is more than an obsession with living a long life, it has become the only acceptable way to be. It's had an impact on how people drink too. Since I am a drinker I remember the pictures painted by authors of by gone eras. Eras when people drank very regularly to the point of excess. Those days are gone. Now people are called alcoholics if they enjoy mixing alcohol and life too much. How can you get up early enough to drive into the mountains for a full day of mountain biking if you're hung over from the night before?
There's more to my thoughts and here it goes. In addition to laziness being an uncool thing kindness has also taken a back seat. I think it's the sportsmans' competitive streak that is tainting the once easy going and friendly neighbor of yesteryear. It's getting nearly impossible for me to find nice lazy people! If they're lazy, they're mean ugly losers who don't want to share a nice afternoon with you. If they're nice, well, beware; they might have some sinister motive. They might want to use you somehow. No one seems to just be nice and want to spend the day relaxing enjoying each others' company. Everyone has to be doing something and that something involves competing. Whose got more endurance, who has the bigger balls, who has performed best during our day of 'rest'?
Give me a neighborhood full of stoners and lonely housewives and I'll show you a happy man. I want avocado trees in the backyard. I want my buddies to all have their own gardens. I want the woman I meet to be hornier than hell and in need of some personal attention. I want my neighbors to be at ease spending the day getting stoned and listening to great music. I want my nights to be loud and boisterous full of alcohol consumption. I want something I can't have.
It looks like I need to start exercising, stop drinking, and start cultivating an unnecessary need to be the best. Instead of investing my cash in a weekend of red eyed memories, I must buy a bike and raft rack for my car. I must find suitable locations to pursue these activities and I must pursue them weekly. All this just to be cool. Nothing in life is free and it looks like the money makers have even tapped into the "coolness" market by making it necessary to buy sport's equipment and take part in competitive activities.
Where's my time machine? I want to go back! Take me back to the days of bell bottoms and Led Zepplin. Take me back to the days of martini sippin' private detective The Thin Man or The Great Gatsby. But it'll never happen. I'm stuck here for now. Oh well...
There's more to my thoughts and here it goes. In addition to laziness being an uncool thing kindness has also taken a back seat. I think it's the sportsmans' competitive streak that is tainting the once easy going and friendly neighbor of yesteryear. It's getting nearly impossible for me to find nice lazy people! If they're lazy, they're mean ugly losers who don't want to share a nice afternoon with you. If they're nice, well, beware; they might have some sinister motive. They might want to use you somehow. No one seems to just be nice and want to spend the day relaxing enjoying each others' company. Everyone has to be doing something and that something involves competing. Whose got more endurance, who has the bigger balls, who has performed best during our day of 'rest'?
Give me a neighborhood full of stoners and lonely housewives and I'll show you a happy man. I want avocado trees in the backyard. I want my buddies to all have their own gardens. I want the woman I meet to be hornier than hell and in need of some personal attention. I want my neighbors to be at ease spending the day getting stoned and listening to great music. I want my nights to be loud and boisterous full of alcohol consumption. I want something I can't have.
It looks like I need to start exercising, stop drinking, and start cultivating an unnecessary need to be the best. Instead of investing my cash in a weekend of red eyed memories, I must buy a bike and raft rack for my car. I must find suitable locations to pursue these activities and I must pursue them weekly. All this just to be cool. Nothing in life is free and it looks like the money makers have even tapped into the "coolness" market by making it necessary to buy sport's equipment and take part in competitive activities.
Where's my time machine? I want to go back! Take me back to the days of bell bottoms and Led Zepplin. Take me back to the days of martini sippin' private detective The Thin Man or The Great Gatsby. But it'll never happen. I'm stuck here for now. Oh well...
