On my daily walk yesterday I saw three perfectly good bicycles —though of an older style—put out for the waste collector. I was sorely tempted to save them from becoming land fill. What a waste!
I surmised that the owners must have simply abandoned these out-of-style items, after having fallen prey to marketers hawking the more modern specialized bicycle styles, perhaps the one with very thin tires, or with very wide knobby ones, or even the new (an abomination) motorized variety. Then again, these folks may have turned to the most recent marketing craze—the stationary bike which keeps the rider indoors, in one place, staring at a huge TV screen with scenes of the outdoors—a virtual nature abandoned for the real thing. This hypercomplex system combines, a big screen TV, wifi and motivational programs, with physiological analysis—and more.
What we are missing today is the simple. In every human endeavor we are required to first purchase expensive special clothing, shoes, head gear, wrist-wear, electronics, reflectors, and tons of equipment before we can even begin to enjoy nature, exercise our cramped limbs, or experience a refreshing new and simpler life style for a short period in our often too complex lives.. After all isn’t that the objective of recreation and sports...getting out doors, away from our technologically dominated lives and down to basics?
But today even the simplest activity—walking—requires special shoes, clothing, and even wristwear. But If one prefers to move just a little bit faster than a walk— jogging or running—then it is de rigueur to wear tight fitting, air-streamed leggings and upper body wear. Your footwear must no longer be the simple sneaker of old—but a technological engineering marvel of exotic rubber and canvas which will cost upward of what a good bicycle would cost in my youth.
When I was a youngster, fishing was one of my most pleasurable pass times and recreations. I could walk off in my street clothes to my favorite fishing.hole. In my pocket I carried a length of fishline wrapped around a piece of cedar shingle. A lead weight and few fish hooks were tucked into the wrapped line. Those days of simple enjoyment are long gone. Fishing is now complicated. One can not leave home without all manner of poles of enormous complexity and size. Tangle prone, monofilament lines, which when lost overboard never decay, along with a plethora of special hooks, lines and lures, and overly complex mechanisms required to reel in and cast out these these “birdnest” prone lines make this form of recreation more an engineering exercise than fun.
I will not even mention what has happened to camping, Gear for a camping trip of old would begin by simply collecting dad’s short axe from the work shed, a box of strike anywhere matches, momma’s old fry pan and your own olive drab army surplus blanket pulled from your bed. Then one would roll it all into the waterproof tarpaulin you rescued from the wood pile. A few cans of beans and a slab of bacon tucked into the ends of the roll made it complete. Now that was simple!.
I do not imagine us ever going back to the circumstances of my youth. But we may all profit from a new trend—simplicity. Today we have all fallen prey to the American industrialists, marketers, and retailers, who in collusion with Chinese manufacturers conspire to sell us clothes, footwear, electronics, and all manner of hardware for our recreation all of which- perhaps intentionally—seems so quickly to fall out of style or favor. All of these items use up scarce resources, and in the end become land fill—or worse, unsightly roadside deposits.
Perhaps we would all be better off keeping it simple when we want to relax, re-create ourselves, exercise or commune with nature.
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