My favorite weather is “impending doom”. I use this term to describe the approach of massive storms, such as when thunderheads are rolling toward Denver over the eastern planes, or when a snowstorm is approaching and the plows are out in unison, preparing for the battle ahead. It’s exciting. A small part of me comes alive. It’s the challenge, the fight.
But rarely does the challenge or the fight materialize. Sometimes there’s only 10 minutes of rain, or a dusting of snow. When I drove up to Wyoming for the 2017 Solar Eclipse, I bought a pack of Bud Light hoping I’d have some cool story of trading it with a local for a good spot or private road access to escape my vision of an insane mass of people. I got some good pictures of traffic on the way back, but no cool beer exchange story. Ultimately, the traffic was not that bad. At least I still get to tell my story of hauling five hours overnight to Riverton. I wanted a struggle, and I wanted to overcome it. Is this why people love zombie movies and television shows?
The Middle Class? Man, I hate the Middle Class. Sometimes. It’s always the story of ridiculous consumption, riding lawnmowers, woo-dads and gizmos. Kitchens full of tiny little gadgets to help with every culinary action imaginable. “More comfort! More comfort!” should be the slogan of the Middle Class. Drive the car to the grocery story, then drive to the gym, instead of simply walking to the grocery store and saving money on two fronts. Complain about how busy you are. I don’t get it. Well, I do, but I don’t like it. More comfort! More comfort!
When I first moved into this house, there was one day where it was extremely hot. I was working from home that day and was sweating like crazy. I turned the fan on, wanting to avoid using the AC, but the settings activated the AC anyway and it got nice and frosty without my noticing. When my friend who owns the house came home he mentioned we should “talk about” and “agree upon” a setting if things are uncomfortable. So the next day I didn’t touch the thermostat at all. I was, I admit, being extremely passive aggressive, but I also was curious to know, “Hey, what can I actually handle?” It got up to around 80 degrees inside, and my back was sweating pretty good. But I survived. Obviously, but some people never get to realize that they can actually live indoors when it’s 80 degrees. My friend came home, briefly went upstairs, and immediately came down. “Hey, can we agree that 75 degrees is pretty reasonable?” Oh, you like that, huh? It’s pretty hot when the AC isn’t on, huh? We should turn it down, huh? Anyway, my experiment was actually enjoyable. I suspect that after enough 80 degree days, my body would probably adapt. I kind of want to test this next year. (and for the record, we all get along really well here, I am just occasionally mischievous 🙂 )
A lot of well-off people have nothing better to do than renovate their kitchens. Or garages. Or man-caves. O, renovation. It becomes the only excitement some people ever experience. I suspect they are simply bored, and in our culture, it seems the only appropriate way to counter boredom is to be “productive”. So people set their minds toward being more and more comfortable. Buy the extra kitchen gadget. Buy a “time-saver”. Optimize. But really, they have to scramble to find challenges because they’ve already given themselves every solution they can. They live with central AC or central heating. They have fast internet. They drive cars everywhere. They order food online, or pre-made, or get their ridiculous refrigerators to order eggs for them. Nothing is truly a challenge. So they focus their existential angst on gas prices, on why they don’t earn more money, or on their spouse.
I’m still working on challenging myself. Two winters ago, right after a snowstorm, I walked about 15-25 minutes through the snow to my closest grocery store, bought a 20lb bag of rice, and carried it back through the snow. It was intense. It was great. I was sore as hell. It helped that the burlap bag around the rice had handles, but I mean dang. That’s a big, slippery hill when you are hauling rice. But it’s a fraction of what some people in the world carry on a daily basis. Human physiology is not so radically different that we here in the US can’t do the same. Why not try it out? We’re probably just not in as good of shape as those people, plus our mindset prevents us from living that way. We’d rather pay $100/month to attend a specialty gym where we can do things in a controlled setting because we don’t have any actual need to do those things in an uncontrolled setting. Specialty gyms have their place and they can be fun, but do you get what I’m saying? Most fitness is just effective showmanship. Very few people actually have a physical application for their conditioning. But I know one guy whose gym is the Colorado 14ers and any run-able road he chooses. He may not have bulging muscles, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t kick your ass or run circles around you if he really wanted.
Last week I hiked Waterton Canyon to the Strontia Springs Reservoir…in drizzle. I hadn’t planned on the weather, but Friday night I decided to do it the next day and I stayed true. With the right shoes, a water-proof and breathable jacket, hat and gloves, and a rain-fly for my backpack, I was fine. Dang that was a long hike. Easy terrain, but long. The rain really wasn’t an issue at all, and I got a great view of the giant dam face with water coming out below while fog capped the sides of the canyon. Totally worth it. If you push yourself, you may be surprised what you can accomplish.
People will think you’re crazy for living with less comfort than normal. Some people thought I was crazy for living off half my income. Either that or they just assumed I was loaded with dough, which isn’t the case. It’s not that hard, you just accustom yourself to saving more and spending less. You can do this in one swoop, or you can work up toward it overtime, as I did. I’m happy with where I’m at now, but there is that little wondering of what I could handle if I just pushed myself a little more. I might be surprised.
I also think the general boredom of life is what causes video game addiction. Video games have really perfected the art of reward systems, and there seem to always be new challenges. Starting with the PlayStation 3, Sony introduced “Trophies”, little rewards you could earn by doing certain things or achieving various statistics in the game, and they haven’t disappeared. These tap into your reward system and keep you playing more. Rewards in video games are more cleanly defined than rewards in real life, and this makes it easy to stave off boredom by focusing on the next objective.
Yes, we’re talking Sisyphus here. But I think it’s critical to understand that this is real. We want challenges to overcome, but at some point we make our lives so ridiculously comfortable that there are really no challenges to overcome. I almost wonder if this related to the extreme prevalence of depression in Western or otherwise industrial economies. We really already have everything we need, and we’ve lost the art of being challenged.