The Simple Things

Just on Saturday afternoon, I was walking outside to get to my car to refill the parking meter. As the walk got further down the block, I began to realize how nice it was to just go for a bit of a walk in the sunshine. When I was a kid, I hated walking. I thought it was the most unproductive thing in the world. "Why would I bother moving my feet and being content with that 5 KM/hr pace, when I could do less activity, and go 15-20 KM/hr on my bike? That makes no sense!" I think now though, with the hectic and busy life that being a 21 year old brings, I appreciate the simple activities much more now.

Ask me when I was a kid if I wanted to go for a walk, I would have said, "Are you kidding? There's this new thing on the computer called the internet! I heard that they also have a nintendo website!" Back in the earlier part of our lives, being with friends always meant having some kind of activity to participate in. It could be Lego building, action figures, video games, sports, etc. Now though, if one of my friends asked me if I wanted to take a walk around the lake, I'd be there in a heartbeat. If that friend happened to be a cute girl, you can put me down for 5 laps around that same lake.

As anyone else living in the new milennium, I often find myself so wrapped up in being productive. You look around yourself, and you can find several instances where you're trying to clear your to do list when you should really focus on the original task at hand. Examples:

- Reading while you're in the crapper: I know many of you do it even today. I'm not sure who came up with this idea, but it never really appealed to me to take my time and sit in a stink assed room with your own feces while trying to finish a crossword or catch up on reader's digest. Me, I'll be done my business under one minute flat. I've even heard my brother playing Texas Hold'em on his cellphone while on the crapper.. His reasoning is that it's a nice private time where you can relax and not do anything for a while. I guess it'd almost be like a vacation from life for some people, where they know that they're not responsible to do anything else in there but to take care of their bowel business. My question is, why don't you just get it over with, and then sit or even lie down somewhere COMFORTABLE where you can do the relaxing stuff you usually do on the toilet. Why would I willingly stay in there when my bedroom is 5 feet away?

- Cellphone while driving: This one is a huge petpeeve for lots of people, obviously because it can be really dangerous. I don't think this one happens only because we have the need to be productive. I know for myself, I tend to drive many places by myself, and it is nice to have someone to talk to on your way to somewhere. So I would attribute it to the need to not be alone during that time too. I'm totally guilty of this one, and although I know it's dangerous, it's still really hard to justify the purchase of a handsfree set. And even then, the danger wouldn't be completely gone.

- Homework while on msn: This one just doesn't seem to work for me, so I try to avoid it as much as I can altogether. I do think though that it has to do with that same need to not be alone while doing this stuff. I know for me, it's really nice when I have to do an all-nighter to finish a report, and there's still someone online at 2 or 3 in the morning. It can get almost eerie when no one is awake at all, while you're slaving away at that report.

It seems like our lives are so busy with being productive that it is becoming like a real life Sims game. "Hmmm, driving to work, better call that girl I like to gain +20 to our friendship." "I'm on msn AND I'm organizing my music! Double whammy!" For me at least, I'm so caught up with improving some aspect of my life 24/7. I go through my daily activities to try and justify that what I'm doing will significantly contribute to the betterment of my life. "Hmm I should watch TV, so that once I am done, I'll feel relaxed and ready to get down to studying." Of course, it never works out the way we plan it, which is why people who become really good at focusing on the task at hand tend to get ahead in life.

This blog kind of got sidetracked with the subject of multi-tasking, but the point is that I've begun to realize that you don't always have to be DOING something productive or 'entertaining'. In fact, I think that kind of thinking is very unnatural for us. Imagine what people in the 1700's would be doing before the advent of lots of the technology and entertainment that we possess today. I believe that everything has gotten so technical today, even with the simple activity of walking. My ethics teacher made an interesting point, "The world is filled with companies trying to tell you what you need. There's a magazine out there called 'Walking', and I had no idea I needed a magazine to tell me how to walk, but apparently I do."

What it all comes down to is the human condition of greed. We naturally want the most bang for our buck, or in this case, the most out of our time. So if this walking magazine can tell me how to walk in the most efficient way (burning the most calories, covering the most distance, building specific muscles, etc), then I'm gonna buy this magazine because I'm tired of walking the normal way like a sucker. Everything thing we do can be considered multi-tasking because everything is so technical now and there is so much more knowledge and research in the field. Even in the bare-basic area of sleeping and resting, there are studies that tell us how to sleep and the most energy / rem cycle / brain rest out of it. We wouldn't want to sleep like a sucker...

As for me, I'm going to go for more simple walks. Even if I don't have the manual to walking, it's nice to indulge in the simple things.