Case for “Sedentary” Lifestyle

           

            In a typical city- be it a suburb or a bustling metropolis, it is not rare to see a physical activity from time to time. But despite these common occurrences of exercises and healthy activities, we tend to generalize about the city dwellers that we are somehow lacking physical activity. True, we normally lead a life detached from our physical connections. As a student, my life is spent mostly sitting on a desk or gazing at a computer screen. This, however, is not a definite proof that I don’t somehow stay connected with my physical self. I play tennis regularly and run on the track to stay active. If you receive adequate amount of regular physical activity and stay healthy, how is this so-called “sedentary” lifestyle bad?

            In the essay written by Kate Braid “A Plea for the Physical,” we see this gross generalization made once more. In fact, the essay does very little other than managing to sound so desperate that she seems to be pleading to us (at least her title is accurate). The worst of it all is that the essay lacks clear focus. It begins talking about the obsessive hygiene of North Americans and then steers off into a personal biography about how she began to work as a construction worker and found the experience exhilarating. And throughout all this storytelling, I could only think of one thing: “so what.” Sure it is great that Kate Braid has a physical job that she likes. It is great that she thinks we are getting out of touch with the physical realm. But who cares. Throughout the whole thing, we see a person who is so wrapped up in her own dogma that she fails to realize what world is actually like.

            Let us be realistic here.

            We are not immobile creatures, stuck onto our automobile seats with laptop perched on our laps. We realize the value of exercise and try to get as much time to do so. And this is not just in Vancouver. All over the world, there are different forms of exercise that people regularly participate in to try to improve their health, spirituality, and strength. Whether it is a game of ping-pong, weightlifting, skiing, jogging, or Tai Chi, we all try our best to engage ourselves in a physical activity once in a while. But here are the drawbacks of sedentary lifestyle- we sometimes cannot accumulate enough time for physical activities. Even myself, a student, can skip an hour of jogging some day because of the amount of studying I have to do. But at the same time, this does not make me somehow increase my “sense of being “out of touch” with our bodies,” as Kate Braid puts it. It is not like I do not know what feeling that adrenalin pumping through veins and sweat pounding down feels like; I feel it at least every week. But Kate Braid fails to see that city dwellers like me regularly experience physical activities.

To me, the one-hour jog and my weekly tennis is enough to realize who I am. And I have no doubt that other people would agree. I don’t have to become a Luddite and a construction worker to become “connected” to my physical realities. But as a wise person once said “one’s moderation is another’s extremism.” To Kate Braid, her position seems logical- and I understand that. But her logic starts breaking when she assumes that her positions apply to her audiences.

            But this is not the end of my rant. Throughout the essay, Kate Braid also constantly mentions the importance of nature in our lives and how we are abandoning it. But people need to realize that “our habit of living a life increasingly detached from earth” is not a bad thing! The elusive “spiritual” that Kate Braid keeps referring to might have worked for a Daoists thousands of years ago, but it really doesn’t convince modern audiences. There really is no such thing. The only reason nature is so special to us now is because there are few. Ask a girl from countryside what she thinks about nature. The answer is obvious: boring. Because we sometimes live so huddled up within our own creations, we miss nature, so it becomes special to us. But it is this process of making something special by ourselves that creates this “spiritual” atmosphere every time we immerse ourselves in nature, and it is not that the “spiritual” atmosphere is not just inherent in nature. The symbolism we place upon nature- that it is opposite from men is why nature can becomes a sanctuary for those seeking refuge from bustling metropolis. In Korea, there is a rather famous spa in a remote rural area. The rustic farmlands and forests as well as the “healing spa” was claimed to have healed a cancer patient. Little did those who viewed the advertisement know that it was relaxing and stress free environment that accounted for the spa’s “curative” qualities- not the “relieving of the spirit” as the advertisement described it.

            For many readers, Kate Braid is advocating a way that has been heard many times over the years. We never hear about people advocating for city life. It is always for nature people advocate. And we never hear about people advocating for less active society. We always hear complaints about how lacking in physical activities we are- never that we have to much. But I think this superstition has gone too far. We need to recognize that our lifestyle has nothing wrong with it. I lead a sedentary lifestyle- but so far, me and other millions of people have lived on fine and it will continue to do so.