The sight of an old clothesline in the heart of suburban Sagamore Beach (see Marash Girl's photo) jarred Marash Girl. Once (and not so long ago) we carried heavy baskets of wet clothes out to the fresh air to hang on our back yard clotheslines -- the sunshine (if it was sunny) and fresh air (if we didn't live too close to a highway) revived us and the exercise (lifting and carrying weight, bending, stretching) energized (or alternatively exhausted) us.
Today we throw our wet clothes into the electric (or gas) dryer (consuming untold amounts of energy) and drive to the gym for our exercise. Who's kidding whom? Are we really emancipated or have we given up a wonderfully natural form of exercise (and don't forget the part about chatting over the back yard fence) for the artifice of weights inside an airless, sunless gym full of stressed bodies anxious to go through the motions that are required in today's world of perfectly toned bodies?
Of course, there's always gardening in the summer and shoveling in the winter . . .
Today we throw our wet clothes into the electric (or gas) dryer (consuming untold amounts of energy) and drive to the gym for our exercise. Who's kidding whom? Are we really emancipated or have we given up a wonderfully natural form of exercise (and don't forget the part about chatting over the back yard fence) for the artifice of weights inside an airless, sunless gym full of stressed bodies anxious to go through the motions that are required in today's world of perfectly toned bodies?
Of course, there's always gardening in the summer and shoveling in the winter . . .
That's a great point! I read in a yoga-related blurb that most of the exercise we need is just in doing regular daily activities - it's just that we don't do them anymore!
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