In other words
Take a reality time-out
Are there no guilt-free pleasures left?…Not even a sunny summer day?
Last year I felt guilt over our endless, hot, sunny summer. Wells were drying, crops were crisping, forests were firing…and there I was, cheering on each blue-sky day. (Self-centred hedonists meet at my house every third Wednesday.)
This summer: more guilt. No threat of drought this time, but every time I find myself wishing for even one hot, sunny day, I tuck my wishes away. In light of the flood potential, how could I be so selfish?
It’s global warming’s fault!
How do you regard global warming—as a threat to our way of life as we know it, or the world as we know it? Or is it just another blip in the climate pattern? Whichever way your opinion blows—and truth aside—GW is a handy target for our collective remorse over a consumer ideology spinning out of control. Finally, here it is: the comeuppance for our materialism. More guilt. We bad.
But global warming is just the tip of the shrinking iceberg. If we want to wallow in guilt, consider the widening gulf between the haves and have-nots: Those who do/don’t have water. Oil. A reliable supply of hormones. It’s almost enough to make us crave a good (oxymoron alert) Jerry Springer episode. Or, at the very least, it’s enough to make us want to retreat to our homes, where we can get away from the news, even as we watch it on TV at 6.
Guilty news is everywhere: On the tube. Online. In the newspapers. But at the water cooler it’s not melting ice-caps folks are chatting about…it’s Britney’s latest hair meltdown. Timmy’s new ice-caps. Whatever happened to Vanilla Ice?
The scarier the news and more stressful our daily lives, the more we tend to retreat into fantasy, be it literature, gossip rags, video games or TV. The more mindless, the better, to give our taxed brains a time-out at the end of the day. It’s also a matter of staying abreast of the latest wave in popular culture. When we gather at the water cooler/watering hole, we’ve got to talk about something. If it’s not sex, politics or religion it had better be neutral ground: Hockey. Music. Britney.
The lovely thing about living in a post-modern society is that we can pick and choose from a variety of realities. When the guilt gets to be too much, we can eschew the harsh reality that we share with everyone on the planet for the fluffy reality of mainstream media, shared by most people who have access to the Internet.
Ironically, the most effective way to escape the ‘real’ world is to participate in it more fully. Log out and tune in to a reality that is fully engaging—socially, mentally, physically.
Socially: find a hall, a field or a park with an event happening and—well—socialize.
Mentally: learn a new trick. My favourite non-guilty pleasure as a non-musical person is singing in a community choir. You could do likewise. Sing. Play an instrument. Bang a drum. Alternatively (or coincidentally), you could take in one (or more) of the many music festivals across the north. Hang in the audience or hop onstage! With a little (or a lot of) practice, you too could play the accordion before an audience of hundreds
Physically: the healthiest way to ‘time out’ isn’t a retreat to your sleek, streamlined easy chair, or shiny, hard-bodied electronica—it’s an escape to the big, fat, voluptuous outdoors. In the north, you can step out your back door and take your pick—walking, running, cycling, hiking, canoeing, playing ball, picnicking with the kids, climbing trees, swimming at the lake, waterskiing, fishing, camping…
Feeling competitive? There are hundreds of finish lines begging to be crossed, but the ultimate has to be the Raid the North Extreme challenge in Prince Rupert. If you’re not part of Rupert’s entry, the Coastal Disturbance team, you can (of course) enjoy it vicariously on TV, time TBA.
Or, instead of turning away from the big issues, you could turn toward them and engage them head on. Walk for cancer. Take steps to reduce/reuse/recycle. Teach people flood safety. You get the benefits of a social, mental and physical work-out/time-out, and at the same time you help make the ‘real world’ less scary.
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