Oh where?

Today I sat silently reading articles in the laundry room as my clothes went on whirring in the dryer. It was nice. Peaceful. Spring break in a small, college town. All the students have gone, it is early Saturday morning, nothing to distract me, nothing to interfere with my enjoyment of the rare British sun coming in through the windows. Or so I thought.

Enter single remaining undergraduate student in all of Durham. She trudges into the room in her mud-stained Uggs, dragging her feet intentionally, "shhhhf, shhhhf". Her hair looks as if she got into a fight with her cat, but I suspect she spent quite a bit of time creating this style. Her bloated face reveals a long Friday night of drinking and the unfortunate use of non-waterproof mascara. Her low-rise jeans are three sizes too small, revealing the final resting place of all those beer calories. She doesnt seem to be in the best of moods. She is slamming washer doors, dropping laundry powder all over the floor and cursing at the machine change slots. I am staring at her. She looks at me with annoyance. I move out to the lobby in an attempt to continue enjoying my morning. She follows (I hear the "shhhf, shhhf" of her sad Uggs behind me) and sits on the bench next to me. Im a bit irked. Really? Of all the places, she has to sit here? Then it happens.

We are in a college town which is now void of most undergraduate students being Spring Break, yet this one straggler has decided to get up early on a Saturday morning, come into the laundry room (which has been void of anyone but myself all morning), sit right next to me, break out her cell phone and relate the story of last nights drinking to every friend she has. Its truly unimaginable. Im not sure how many buildings we have on campus, but its a lot. She could have picked any of them. Or her dorm room. Or the cafe. Or any other spot, but right next to me. Its like being on an empty airplane with one other person and choosing to sit in the center seat right next to them.

So, what is my point? As this situation was unfolding, I happened to be reading an article that got me thinking about things like, "Are we really better off?" Technological innovations (cell phone girl), food innovations (the joy of corn syrup) - they all seem to have their pluses and minuses. This got me to thinking about my previous post on hunter-gatherer sleeping patterns... which related back to the article I was reading.

Cordain, et al. write in 'Plant-animal subsistence ratios and macronutrient energy estimations in worldwide hunter-gatherer diets' (Am. Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2000), when discussing hunter-gatherer diet vs. the modern diet:

"Total fat intakes would have been similar or higher; however, under all circumstances, protein intakes would have been higher and carbohydrate intakes would have been lower. These differences are due, in part, to the high reliance of Western societies on cereal grains, dairy products, beverages, oils and dressings, and sugar and candy in lieu of meat and fruit and vegetables.

Anthropologic and medical studies of hunter-gatherer societies indicate that these people were relatively free of many of the chronic degenerative diseases and disease symptoms that plague modern societies and that this freedom from disease was attributable in part to their diet. Therefore, macronutrient characteristics of hunter-gatherer diets may provide insight into potentially therapeutic dietary recommendations for contemporary populations."

"Whats wrong with us?"
"I dont know, ask the hunter-gatherers."

Ha. I just love the we think of ourselves as so advanced in comparison to archaic hunter-gatherers. So advanced we are killing ourselves. Michael would say KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

OK, admittedly sometimes I let this get me down. Politics, Ugg girls, text messaging, terrible eating habits, the state of the world in general. Thats when Wendell Berry becomes helpful.

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

-The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry