Mom Was Right: Go Outside

Nice article in today's Wall Street Journal, yes a Saturday edition. It's all about how our Mom's were right to tell us to go outside, especially when our presence underfoot started to grate on them. It never helped matters that air-conditioning didn't become ubiquitous in suburbia until the late 1970s. We didn't have it until 1975 and the basement was the coolest place in the house. The WSJ article goes on the say that the effects of communing with nature, instead of technology provide benefits across all age groups and raise our levels of creativity in ways that answering email, playing video games or posting to FaceBook will never be able to accomplish. The research suggests we need to make time to explore our surroundings, even if those are in the city. We need, "to make time to escape from everyone else, to explore those parts of the world that weren't designed for us." When we were kids this meant the nearby streams and ponds, or if we were feeling evil the roof of Willard School. I can still drive by Willard, even after it recent addition of a second story to what we always called "the New Wing" and see that the best way to get on the roof is still within my grasp. I will withhold the clues for fear you will try it yourself. This Memorial Day Weekend heed your old Mom or Dad's advice from long ago and Go Outside. If only to let people know what you have been doing when you eventually return to the tethers of the Internet.