A Lazy Day

The trees bend down along the stream, Where anchored swings my tiny boat. The day is one to drowse and dream And list the thrush’s throttling note. When music from his bosom bleeds Among the river’s rustling reeds.

No ripple stirs the placid pool, When my adventurous line is cast, A truce to sport, while clear and cool, The mirrored clouds slide softly past. The sky gives back a blue divine, And all the world’s wide wealth is mine.

A pickerel leaps, a bow of light, The minnows shine from side to side. The first faint breeze comes up the tide— I pause with half uplifted oar, While night drifts down to claim the shore.

—Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

Now let’s consider a bit about keeping our physical selves well. I begin with one quick and dramatic comment: the primary objective of exercise is not to get injured!

I began preparing physically for hiking more than a year in advance even though I was “in shape” but not “conditioned.” We can maintain our weight and be active but not realize the peak of physical performance, which we attain by doing exercises to help us with mobility, stability, balance, strength, and endurance, in that order. When considering exercise, especially if it has been years since any real, sustained, vigorous activity, the phrase to follow is: slow as she goes. The goal is to avoid injury that stops your exercise regimen. So, the trick is to learn enough about your physical structure and capabilities that you can continue your regimen by working around an injury. Never stop the habit of exercising. It is all about:

SIMPLICITY. Exercising need not be complex. Determine to really exercise five times per week with a variety of low-impact conditioning routines like supervised high-intensity interval training, or HITT, swimming, spinning, and yoga, for example.

SUITABILITY. Age appropriateness is very important. CrossFit is da bomb! But an older person or someone new to exercise does not have to do the CrossFit we see advertised. Take a step down to routines that focus on light weights and high repetitions usually with body weight only. I have been doing this for about 18 months now and have never had the same workout twice. There must be variety in good conditioning.

SUSTAINABILITY. Exercise is for the long haul. Exercise hard and determine to do it for a lifetime.

Know that there is a difference between physical activity and exercise. One can’t be conditioned by gardening three times a week. You know if you are exercising if you cannot carry on a conversation during the exertion. Big difference. I am living the observation that the best years of your life will be after you are 60. But you must be vigorous and capable to be ready for the blessings of being a senior.

Now consider the second part of the holistic lifestyle: mind. Read voraciously. Always carry a book with you; one can read shelves of books in stolen moments, like waiting for an appointment. Find someone you admire and study how they conducted a life worth living and do some of the things they did. Time management is one thing; another is never being idle.

Relaxing and recreating is OK if time is also spent improving the self and those around us.

Nearly every day, it seems, accomplished people include mindfulness in their personal study and growth. Yes, the titans of industry meditate; so do many of our neighbors. This is merely a few minutes of quiet time where one practices being in the moment. This quiet time is scientifically proved to improve health and perspective. And I can make the case that this state of just being present can easily be achieved by practicing the art of the walk.

The art of walking is when the footfalls are in cadence with a set of hiking poles to involve the upper body in hiking, which together are matched with rhythmic breathing and relaxing. Yes, you can relax when you are walking. With practice I am now able to feel the pull of gravity on my face. Guess what is happening—these are the elements of meditation. It is tough to fret about yesterday and how it could have been—it’s done. And one can’t really worry about tomorrow because so much is unpredictable. Furthermore, you are simply away from worries in another marvelous world. Being in the moment in nature is what matters. Here’s proof:

I was explaining the art of the walk to a woman who belongs to a walking club. She remarked, “Yeah! Often I realize I have just walked five miles and I don’t know where it went.” She was in a meditative state. Who knows what her mind was free to think about and imagine during those miles where time stood still. That is meditation. Furthermore, she had begun so out of shape that, “I could only last 3½ minutes on a treadmill.” She was not deterred. She kept at it. Now she does 30- to 50-mile days with the club—and she just turned 70. There is something to this nature business. Lastly, let’s consider minding our spirit.

I turn to the ancients again. They defined happiness as freedom from big worries and persistent big pain. What great insight and truth. With that in mind, just about anyone can be or already is happy. Furthermore, we have nearly daily examples of people with truly big troubles and pain. They struggle mightily, yes, but return to living vital and accomplished lives while being examples to untold numbers of us. Remarkably so, there are people who are missing limbs and even one blind man and his dog who have hiked the entire Appalachian Trail. Happiness is real and attainable. So, as I say in “The Honest Backpacker”: find your way—take a hike.

Before speaking of raising our children, we need to define our terms. Children, specifically, share a universal language, the language of children. Children understand each other after mere minutes together, no matter their differences. I believe that this merits our attention: anyone addressing children in the world is addressing the children of the world.

What are the sources that form children’s awareness: school, home, and family and friends? Out of the

24 hours that make up the day, there are still three or four hours left. What happens in these hours? This is the focus of this article.

Anywhere in the world, children spend their free time in front of a television, computer, tablet, or smartphone, depending on the family’s financial resources. Mostly they watch animation. What is the content of these works? The subject matter of most of these works worldwide, in whatever language, revolve around the following: A bad guy oppresses a good guy. The bad guy wins at first, then the good guy defeats the bad guy in the end. This plot is repeated endlessly in all children’s fare throughout the globe.

Most of these plots do the following to our children’s minds:

• Reinforce the concept of Self/Us versus Other/Them.

• Reinforce the concept that violence is the rule and not the exception.

• Reinforce the concept of eternal competition: Us or Them, with no compromise.

• Reinforce the concept that a victory for the Self/Us is the only way to win in life.

• Reinforce the concept that We must win, while the Other must lose.

• Reinforce the concept of tribalism, in its unhealthiest sense.

This can be found in most films and games mass-produced worldwide. You don’t need to speak any foreign languages to make sense of what goes on in these works: the overwhelming majority revolve around similar concepts. Doubtless, there are others working towards creating healthy content for children; however, they are a negligible minority facing fierce competition.

“What’s wrong with that?” you may say. Well, what is wrong with that is that we are addressing children, who by nature and due to their young age, have no ego, and we are filling them with not only individual and collective ego, but with a competitive, exterminatory instinct. The meanings of these works are confined to Other versus Us. Those who attack us are Other; those who protect us are Us. But there is no mention of divine intervention. Deus ex machina is a tired plot twist, no matter the religion of the societies that show these films.

What happens as a result? I believe the universal model is geared towards saturating the consciousness of the world’s children with the individual and collective ego, preparing them for boxing God into specific times and places. This occurs automatically under self-centeredness, presented as the only natural way of life.

The question is: If you agree with this diagnosis, what are you going to do? Our children—the world’s children—are being raised from birth before our very eyes, with our full consent at that, on a steady diet engineered to build an individual and collective ego. With our full consent, or our full ignorance, they are encouraged to view the Almighty as having no role in what happens in our lives, or at best a marginal and ineffectual one. Our children today are the youth of tomorrow: they are the future.

ABOUT THE WRITER → Waeil Borhan has studied architecture and, as an entrepreneur, he has built business ventures in real estate development and farming. His book, “I,” is available from Next Century Publishing.