Better Off_ Flipping the Switch on Technology - Eric Brende [111]
With all this physical activity, engaged in as a natural part of our day, none of us has to concoct an exercise regimen to make up for lost labor. And so far our health has held up fine. And since physical work readily lends itself to cooperation, we work together and enjoy our ample leisure together as a family without ever having to try to do so.
Copyright © 2004 Eric Brende
E-Book Extra
Ten Tips for a Leaner and More Leisurely Life in a World of Technology
Guiding insight: by using "labor-saving" devices, you don’t get rid of the labor, you only postpone physical exercise and create two jobs out of one. The trick is to restore to our daily routines physical, and often accompanying social, exercise that technology has removed. It might be good to start out with the most debilitating technologies first. Here are some of the tips and tricks we’ve found useful in our transition to low technology in the big city:
Walk or bike instead of driving a car. To aid in performing daily errands, get deep double rear collapsible bike baskets big enough to hold two sacks of groceries. Use a bicycle trailer or a "Trail-a-bike" attachment that turns an adult bicycle into a tandem for a child. Consider a four-seat pedal-car for family outings (made by Quadracycle, Inc. or Rhoades Car). Don’t be afraid to spend money on quality; the investment is miniscule compared to the cost of motorized transport. You may not be able to get rid of the car altogether (we didn’t), but you may be able to reduce it to a secondary form of transit.
If you live in a spread-out environment, consider relocating to where you can more easily walk or bike to everything you need.
Replace television with reading or attending live productions (and walk or bike as above if you can). Read your children bedtime stories or play indoor games. Listen to good radio programs like Garrison Keillor’s "Prairie Home Companion" while the family works on household projects together.
Replace e-mail with handwritten letters or personal visits. Use the computer at the library, and save yourself the need for chronic upgrades at home. Using the library’s terminal will give you an excuse to bike or walk over, and limit your daily dosage of sedentary screen-staring.
Instead of taking an aerobics class, get a swing-handled washing machine (available, from Lehmann’s "Good Neighbor" catalog), and make your laundry your workout.
Replace shrill motorized workshop equipment (drills, saws, power-hammers) with hand tools, and make home carpentry projects into more physical and socially inviting workouts.
Cook your own food instead of buying instant dinners, and make it a family enterprise. Garden or support local farmers’ markets. When dining out, support family-operated, ethnic restaurants.
With all the money you’re saving by cutting back on technological expenses, consider paying off your mortgage, and enjoying more leisure time and/or working at home.
Join or start a "machine of the month club," to gain support from others trying to minimize technology.
Be circumspect. Don’t drop everything at once or in too piecemeal a fashion. Allow yourself an "experimental period," in which you make adjustments; at the end of the adjustment period, evaluate, see what works and what doesn’t, make further adjustments, and repeat. The Amish term "Gelassenheit" or "self-surrender,” i.e., patience, openness to observation, willingness to adapt, may be helpful.
About the Author
ERIC BRENDE has degrees from Yale, Washburn University, and MIT, and has received a Citation of Excellence from the National Science Foundation and a graduate fellowship from the Mellon Foundation in the Humanities. At the insistence of his editor, he now has an e-mail account at the local library but continues to minimize modern technology for himself and his family. Eric and Mary Brende have recently relocated to an old-town section