Health, Happiness, And The Things We Have To Have

Now, this is not about me being better than anyone else. I have my big screen TV, a brand new Toyota, an air conditioned home, big refrigerator, computers, cable with a kazillion channels. As Yul Brynner, as the king of Siam would say..."etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!"
Nor is it about giving all of this up and going back to the "good old days". Yes, I could live the way I used to live back in the 50's and 60's. It wasn't bad back then, but I see no reason to give up the gifts that science and progress have given us. So many of these things are interlinked anyway, if you were to give up one, you give up something else as well. Take computers and advances in medical technologies and treatments just as one example.
No, there's no reason to argue for going back to the good old days.
However, as someone who has had a chance to see change over half a century and more, it tickles my fancy from time to time to line up one beside the other and see differences. It makes me wonder, how much progress we truly have made.
For example, I just ordered a new lawnmower from Home Depot. I did it online, saving time and gas. Not only that, but in a fit of environmental activism, I ordered an electric, rechargeable mower. As I was browsing the online selections, I saw an old reel type mower. It started me thinking.
Oh yes! I remember the days when what you had was the reel mower, and it was one person power. The one I specifically remember had a wooden handle that to me seemed as big as a wagon tongue. It weighed a ton...at least to me, a preteen lad. Now we have these sleek gas and electric mowers designed to do such a better job and make life easier for us. But do they?
First of all, modern reel mowers are much lighter than they used to be and are made to be quite a bit more efficient than the ones of my boyhood. That takes a lot of the effort out of the job of cutting grass with one. Also, if you do not put it off, but cut your grass regularly, it is almost as fast with a reel mower as with a gas or electric one.
How about this? Reel mowers take fewer raw materials to manufacture and put less pollution into the environment.
Here’s a question. What's one of the biggest health problems facing Americans today? It is a problem so big that it is normally referred to as a crisis. It either causes premature death or creates an individual whose life is restricted by the condition and often requires that person to have much more medical attention and intervention. It taxes and strains not only the fabric of the health care system, but takes money from the pockets of those who must pay the bills, whether patient or taxpayer. This is money and time which could be spent on healthcare for others or the development of new treatments and technologies, not to mention the quality of life that current victims would enjoy if they were not in this situation.
The health problem I speak of is obesity. While there are many who bring the condition on themselves either through ignorance or by simply not caring, there are many who just don't know how they got that way. While obesity commonly results from a combination of factors, one of its major contributing factors is simply lack of exercise or activity.
In days of yore, people had to use reel mowers, scrub boards, and walk a lot more than today. Heck! When was the last time YOU got up out of your chair and changed the dial on your TV? Hey, remember the days when you had to get up three or four times in the first few minutes of a show to adjust the sound or tune the channel in better?
Don't get me started with my remembrances of the ice man stopping his truck in the street outside my house and lugging in a huge chunk of ice for the ice box...not refrigerator, and the days when there was a parent at home to raise the kids and make a house a home because one family member could make enough to feed and care for the family...and there were fewer things we have to have.
Donovan Baldwin is a Texas writer and a University of West Florida alumnus. He is a member of Mensa and is retired from the U. S. Army after 21 years of service. In his career, he has held many managerial and supervisory positions. However, his main pleasures have long been writing, nature, health and fitness. In the last few years, he has been able to combine these pleasures by writing poetry and articles on subjects such as health, fitness, yoga, writing, the environment, happiness, self improvement, and weight loss. He has several articles on health posted on his blog at http://nodiet4me.blogspot.com .
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