I am angry that it is 90 degrees in Syracuse, New York at 11 a.m. and I am so hot that I feel “forced” to use the air conditioning in my house and in my car.
Why should I be so angry about air conditioning? What’s the big deal? Don’t we all want to be more comfortable?
Here in Syracuse it’s been the hottest summer I remember. I grew up in the 1960’s and neither our house nor our car had air because back then it didn’t get so hot so consistently. To me, the growing use of air conditioning—both cause and consequence of global warming—is concerning because we burn coal and other fossil fuels to produce it, which in turn affects the quality of our air and our soil.
The worst part to me is this has become a vicious cycle—we use more air conditioning (requiring more natural resources to produce it) which exacerbates one of the causes of global warming (pollution) which increases the Earth’s temperature which leads to the need for more air conditioning!
So why am I talking about anger and air conditioning in a blog dedicated to nourishment, sufficient rest, and increasing physical activity? The impetus for writing my book “Eat Well, Sleep Better, Move More: A Journey of Self-Care” was that I find it extremely disturbing that, as a nation, we are not as healthy as we could be. And that I believe that the root of the problem has to do in great part with the fact that we don’t or are not able to—due to a systemic, Big Business attitude of “profit-over-people” greediness which demands a machine-like efficiency on the part of its employees—prioritize our own personal wellbeing. How our country behaves has more to do with promoting convenience (in theory a “time-saver” which in the long term is killing us; see my book) in order to continue to progress with high levels of greed and too much speed. This ethic of consumptionism impacts not only our physical wellbeing but our mental health. However, it is my belief that “less is more” and that taking care of our Selves takes time and energy…time and energy we may not possess due to a corporate culture of forced over-productivity and subsequent work-related stress conditions.
I’m not angry that it is hot out, hotter than it has ever been in my recollection. I am angry that we are destroying our environment: the soil we depend upon to grow our food, the air we must breathe, the trees that provide shade and beauty and fruit and fresh air. The average temperature in Central New York has increased so much in the past few decades that even our gardening zone (“hardiness zone”) has changed, affecting how plants grow. And what makes me feel the most anger is that we don’t seem to care, or that if we do, we feel helpless to change it.
My family and I try to minimize the impact of our habits on the health of the Earth. We drive fuel-efficient cars. We live in a small house. We compost all veggie and fruit scraps, eggs shells, coffee grounds and tea bags. I wash and re-use every Ziplock bag over and over. Yes, that is a royal pain in the ass but I do not like plastic, however ubiquitous and convenient it is, so I re-use every plastic bag that comes into our house. (For doggie poop, trash can liners, in place of plastic wrap when I take a dish to a potluck, as padding when I mail a package, trash bags in the car, etc.) We eat all of our leftovers. (Really!) I re-purpose the water that I rinse food in to water my plants. We recycle all paper, cardboard, plastic, metal and glass items. (We are fortunate that the county we live in, Onondaga, has one of the best recycling systems in the country.) We turn the air off overnight and open the windows, bringing in cooler air with a fan to lessen the load for the air conditioner. I teach my son to re-wear his clothes unless they are dirty or stinky. We try to be conscious of our actions’ impact on the health of the planet. And I believe that, if so many of us weren’t SO BUSY with our jobs and our kids’ activities and our commuting that we could all do more little, simple things that could minimize the trash we produce and lessen the energy load that we consume on this wonderful planet of limited natural resources.
To me, dependence on air conditioning is simply a symptom of a much larger problem. We are so busy working and playing and recreating that we can’t simply endure the heat in the most natural ways possible…by drinking plenty of fluids, slowing down, wearing minimal clothing made from natural, breathable materials, eating more lightly, staying in the shade, using electric fans, opening the windows at night to let the cooler air in, etc. We are too busy to slow down. Are we also too busy to open our eyes and our hearts to the damage we are causing the natural environments that we depend upon for our survival?
So what does being angry have to do with wellness and self-care, you might ask?
Much of our wellbeing has to do not only with our physical fitness but is also a product of our emotional lives. If you’re savvy to what is going on in medicine, you will know that mindbody medicine is all the rage. And for good reason: we now know, with certainty due to prolific research, that how we feel affects how we think, and how we think affects how we feel. And our thoughts—our cognition—and our feelings—our emotions—impact our ability to believe that the things we choose do in our lives can make a difference—our motivation.
I am angry that our drive to thrive, as a nation, seems to be propelled more by the desire to acquire more stuff faster and faster than to ask “what is enough?” and to be satisfied with the simpler things in life. On their deathbed, I’m guessing no one ever thought “if only I had bought a bigger boat my life would have been better!” Most folks seem to regret not spending enough time with their children or saying “I love you” to the people in their lives or taking more time off from work.
I am angry that we seem to be in denial that how we are choosing to live—acquiring more stuff and rejecting soul—is destroying the planet that we need to eat and breathe and love on. I am angry that we don’t just open the car windows and let the air blow our hair around. I am angry that we don’t just sit on the front porch shaded by lilac bushes and sip homemade iced tea when it is hotter than hell out.
